Naruto: Mercenary Tao
by RivalsToLovers
Summary: Even though Naruto is born without chakra, to neglectful parents who decide to train his Jinchuuriki Sister instead of him, it won't stop him from carving out his own name in the history books. Follow the story of Naruto, who will become an Assassin feared across the landscape of the Ninja World. Soon, everyone will know, and fear, the name of Mercenary Tao!
1. Prologue

**A/N:** **Hello all, I'm so happy for everyone who decided to read my story. :3 I read up on a previous Mercenary Naruto story, and I thought it had some potential, so I decided to give my own shot at it. Keep in mind, I'm not the best writer out there, so there is a good chance my story might not be the best out there. So, make sure you keep that mindset when going in, that way you're not surprised if my writing puts you off to the story.**

 **I need to clear some things up. Yes, while this is a DBZ/Naruto Crossover, I want everyone to remember that this is still a Naruto focused kind of story, just with more Dragon Ball elements thrown in. There won't be blowing up entire cities with one magnificent blast (aside from certain Naruto Techniques that can do it) very little flying, no things like Saiyans, Namekians, Changelings, etc. I, personally, feel that the Dragon Ball Z stuff has no place in the Naruto setting, as the levels in power are utterly disproportionate, but I think that Naruto characters could, at least, hang with DB-Era fighters, like General Blue, or Mercenary Tao, or even King Piccolo, but there won't be Raditz-levels and beyond. You're free to disagree with my opinion on that, but that's just how I feel, and that's coming from a fan of both Naruto AND DBZ.**

 **Power Scale:** **Since Naruto is gonna be a lot like Mercenary Tao, he's gonna be quite powerful, but since this is gonna be more like a DB-Era of power thing rather than a DBZ-Era of power, that doesn't mean he's going to dominate every fight he's in with no issue. He will possess some DB Techniques and the like, such as Tao's Dodonpa, and even Techniques like the Kikoho(Tri-Beam), but there won't be anything on the level of ridiculousness as that of DBZ-Era. There will be some times where there are limited forms of flight for Naruto, like hovering in the air and moving through the air in various directions, but it won't be for things like long-distance travel, to get an advantage on an enemy, or anything like that.**

 **It'll be more for things like, say, setting up explosives in strategic spots, or to set up a Technique in a way he normally couldn't on the ground. The only time when actual, legitimate flying Naruto uses will come into play, will be for things like when his opponent is, for example, standing on water. The reason for this is, because Naruto doesn't have Chakra, he's incapable of fighting in such conditions, and I wanted to find a way to still keep the fights even when circumstances like those come up.**

 **Now, before anyone says anything of the sort like 'But if he can fly, why doesn't he use it all the time?' the answer is because of the fact that, much like Water Walking, it drains energy to use, but at the same rate as Water Walking drains Chakra, and since Flying in DB and DBZ wasn't really super fast, it's going to be impractical for things like long-distance travel, and since it drains Energy, Naruto would only want to use it in circumstances where he can't fight his opponent on a level playing field. I know it may seem like a bit of a cop out, but I just feel this is best for the sake of story purposes.**

 **In regards to opponents he fights and how easily he'll beat them, I think I'll have him face opponents that would normally stand no chance against him for the moment, and then gradually work his way up to opponents that will push him and leave him with a believable chance of dying. That doesn't mean there won't be moments where he showcases how much of a 'badass' he is, but like I said, I feel in the DB-Era, Naruto characters have a chance of hanging with anyone from there, and as such, Naruto won't be an unstoppable juggernaut all of the time.**

 **Next, some basic background: This is going to be a Neglected Naruto fanfic, where his parents are alive, and he has a sibling who has the Kyuubi instead of him, and he's pretty much overlooked, albeit for a reason that I feel is needed for his parents to be neglectful, especially Kushina, considering the Uzumaki Clan were big on family. It doesn't make sense for them to just forget Naruto for no reason, and this is not an Abused! Naruto, either, because just like it doesn't make sense for his parents to be neglectful of him for no reason, they would never abuse him.**

 **Naruto is going to be a lot like Mercenary Tao was in Canon, so he's not really gonna be a nice person. He won't be like some Narutos are, who are focused on getting revenge for their neglect, or wanting to prove something to their family. Considering he didn't really get to spend time with anyone in Konoha, at the most, he'll just feel apathy for them, at least at the start. He won't hate them or anything, but since he never really formed a bond with his family or anyone in Konoha, he won't necessarily be merciful towards them if they get in his way. He will help them, of course, but it won't be out of the kindness of his heart. He'll expect payment of some kind for helping them out, as he is under the personal belief that he shouldn't stick his neck out for someone without payment.**

 **Pairings:** **Pairings-wise, I don't really have any ideas, especially in regards to Naruto. Considering Naruto will be a wandering Bounty Hunter/Assassin/Bodyguard/Mercenary, it'll be hard for him to have a stable relationship, and I'm not sure if I can imagine a Mercenary Tao-esque Naruto getting into a relationship. That being said, for those who may like this story and want to see it continue, I'd be open for ideas pairings-wise. I have a couple of conditions in regards to the whole 'Naruto being in a relationship' thing.**

 **#1:** **No Harem. If Naruto gets into a relationship, he'll strictly be a one-woman man. Considering Naruto's wandering nature and such, he'll be very focused on his dealings and obtaining money, and if he obtains multiple women, I believe that he would be distracted too much on the women in his life to focus on his dealings. So, by having one woman, it allows me to ensure that he can focus both on his profession, as well as the significant other in his life, juggling them in his life in a perfectly balanced fashion without the story getting too derailed by all the different romances with all the women he'll be dealing with.**

 **#2:** **No pairing Naruto with Female, or Genderbent Male, Tailed Beasts, Vampires, Demons, Werewolves, non-related OCs, or anything of the sort, and no pairing Naruto with Ootsutsuki, Kaguya either. It has to be a Human Female.**

 **#3:** **Certain Genderbent Male Characters will be considered for the pairing, like a Female Sasuke or even Female Gaara, super popular Genderbent characters, but nothing like Fem!Itachi, or Fem!Pain, or Fem!Hidan, or Fem!Orochimaru.**

 **#4:** **No pairing Naruto with women significantly older than him, like that of, say, Uchiha, Mikoto, or Mabui, or Konan, or Tsunade, or Terumi, Mei. Naruto will be around 17 in this fanfic, so anyone within, say, a 5-7 year age range older than him is the max I'll go. The same applies in reverse, no females significantly younger than him. No one like Hanabi or Moegi. Women like Hana Inazuka, Yugito Nii, and Kurotsuchi are acceptable choices. Hell, even his Jinchuuriki Sister is fine.  
**

 **#6:** **No pairing him with Hinata, either. It's not that I dislike the pairing, I just think it's annoyingly popular, and that pairing pops up way too much for my taste. Naruto, being Mercenary Tao and all, wouldn't have any tolerance for the shy, nervous Hinata.**

 **#7:** **Finally, just keep in mind that if the relationship is to last, the woman will have to leave their village and travel with him under some circumstances, so feel free to come up with scenarios that will make this happen in your Reviews.**

 **That's all of them. Make sure to leave the name of the woman you want to have be involved with Naruto.**

 **I think that's about all I really have to say. I'll just start the story off now.**

* * *

 **Prologue**

"W-What do you want from us?" asked a man who shook from head-to-toe in fear, standing protectively in front of his pregnant wife and child. The whole family held each other in fear as they stared upon the menacing figure in their midst, a man who's very appearance brought dread and apprehension to those who saw him. He was a man of around 5 foot 10, blonde hair pulled back into a tightly braided ponytail that just so happened to a pink hairbow on the end of it, a pencil-style mustache on his upper lip, and three whisker-like birthmarks on his cheeks. He was dressed in a pink Cheongsam that had the symbol of the word Kill draped over the heart, the phrase KILL YOU! printed on the back of the pink outfit in a bright red, and strapped to his back, was a sword safely tucked away in a sheathe, waiting to be drawn. The assassin, who had his arms folded formally behind his back, smirked at them with a menacing, malicious gleam in his sapphire blue eyes, his eyes promising the family that untold tragedy was about to befall them.

"Your Brother has decided that he wishes to seize control over the company you head, and has even hired me full price to take you and your wretched little weakling family out. In fact, he's willing to pay full price three times over to ensure I get all three of you" he said to them with that small, but very menacing smirk still on his face. The unnamed family man, out of instinct, quickly pulled what appeared to be some kind of tomahawk off of his wall, and this only caused the blonde assassin to raise an eyebrow in amusement. With a determined gleam now in his eye, the man threw the tomahawk with all of his might at the unidentified assassin, hoping that he would wind up killing that had been sent after his family. Unfortunately for this businessman, the person he was facing was no ordinary assassin.

The assassin, upon seeing the tomahawk get flung at him, opened his mouth and caught the tomahawk with his teeth, clenching down hard on the blade. Upon seeing this, the man and his family paled and quickly backed away. What truly set the dread for them, however, was how the blonde assassin then bit down hard enough on the blade to reduce the metallic half of the throwing weapon to chunks of scrap metal. The assassin spat out the pieces of metal in his mouth, and proceeded to catch the handle of the tomahawk in his head before it could hit the floor. Placing the handle between his right index and middle fingers, he pulled his arm back, and then flung the handle with devastating force at the man. The result was the man being pierced so hard through the skull by the handle, that it actually continued it's path through his head, and into the skull of his pregnant wife, where it remained embedded.

As the two bodies fell, the little boy burst into tears over what just happened to his parents. Trembling in both fear, and rage, he glared up at the assassin, and with what the assassin assumed what was supposed to be a battle cry, the boy charged at him with his fist cocked back. After letting out a derisive scoff, the assassin proceeded to slam the ends of his toes into the boy's neck with a devastating front kick, resulting in the boy's neck being sheared through and ending in a decapitation. Quietly jumping backwards away from the gory bloodspray to avoid getting any of it on him, the assassin chuckled over his deed, and then exited the house, heading into a horse-drawn carriage where his client was waiting.

Once inside, the assassin sat down on the comfy leather seat, and looked his client in the eyes. "The deed is done, and it was pitifully easy, at that" came the slimy, skin-crawling voice of the assassin. The client smirked in appreciation and nodded his head over the job well done, glad to see that he was right to hire the man in front of him.

"Excellent job. I am glad I hired you, Tao. It's always nice to have somebody I can rely. So, that's 30 million, yes? 10 for my brother, 10 for his wife, and 10 for his little brat. You'll find the money transferred to your Earth Country account, as promised. If you're up for it, I have another job for you, involving the Daimyo of Tsuchi no Kumi himself, and he's willing to pay full price for this deed done as well" came the voice of his client. The assassin, who had been referred to by the name of Tao, focused his full attention on his client, and smirked as a gleam of greed appeared in his sapphire blue eyes.

"My my my, my deeds have become so infamous that I've obtained the notice of a Daimyo, have I? What's the job?" Tao asked his client with a devilish smirk on his face, twirling some of the hairs on his mustache with the fingers on his right hand.

"A while ago, one of the Daimyo's daughters had been kidnapped Gato, as in the Gato of Gato Kanpani, the Shipping Magnate. The woman was later found dead, and unfortunately for the Daimyo, she hadn't been saved because the Tsuchikage had some emergency crisis going on in his village, and as such, was unable to send anyone on the mission. Once I had become aware of this issue, I had offered your services to him, and he seemed most intrigued. He wants Gato dead as revenge for the death of his daughter. Last we heard, Gato was making some kind of stronghold in Nami no Kuni, and that's where he has been for the past several months. If you accept the job, the Daimyo will pay full price, and even more than that should you accept the job. What do you say, interested?" the client had asked the Assassin, which had caused the blonde murderer to smirk and nod his head.

"Tell him I accept, and that I'll head to Nami no Kumi as soon as I am able. I'll even personally kill the worthless little midget, and bring the head to the Daimyo himself as proof of my deeds. After all" here he paused for a moment to smirk in glee at the thought of having not only having more money, but also at the thought of having the Tsuchi no Kuni Daimyo's favor "Mercenary Tao is never one to turn down a job when I can benefit so much from it" he said to the man, who chuckled in amusement. With that said and done, the two them awaited silently for the horse-drawn carriage to take the two of them to their destination, so that Mercenary Tao could then begin his contract.

* * *

 **A/N:** **There we have it, the first out of, hopefully many, chapters is done with. Since it's only a prologue, I didn't consider it necessary to make it super long. Let me know what you all think, and if I get some positive feedback, I'll feel motivated to update this story.**


	2. So Much Money, So Little Time

**A/N:** **Hello all, RivalsToLovers here once more, and I'm here to announce that the First Official Chapter of Naruto: Mercenary Tao is here. As I waited for Reviews, someone PMed me an idea for a possible love interest for Naruto/Tao, and once I had looked up the woman in question, it made me intrigued. She would be absolutely perfect for the main character, and I even have an idea as to how to get her to travel with Tao. As for who she is, well, I'll keep that a secret until the reveal comes. ;)  
**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: So Much Money, So Little Time  
**

"NO! I want to go on a real mission for once, Dattebayo! I'm tired of these chores, Touchan!" screamed a redheaded, green-eyed, Female Konogakure Genin, her cheeks red with anger as she glared menacingly at the man behind the Hokage's chair. Her name was Mito Uzumaki-Namikaze, and she was the pride and joy of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze. The Yellow Flash just sweatdropped at the exuberance of his Daughter, glancing to his left at his wife Kushina, who was openly chuckling at her daughter's antics. He sighed to himself and rubbed the bridge of his nose, realizing just from that look alone that he wouldn't be getting any help from her on this matter, which made things worse as he knew fully well that Mito could be as stubborn as her Mother.

"Musume-chan, I just don't feel you're ready for a C-Rank yet. There are still some things we need to work on" Minato said to his daughter, summoning up all of the patience that he could muster. It wasn't the first time that Mito and him would get into an argument like this, and as such, he knew from experience just how difficult it was to get his daughter to listen when she really wanted something.

"These D-Ranks are crap! You and Kaachan have trained me hard for years, and out of all of the Genin Teams here in Konoha, one with me and Kakashi-Sensei on it will surely be more than enough to handle simple bandits. How else am I gonna find Oniichan if I don't get there and explore?!" she shouted at him with a fuming expression on her face. On cue, the mentioning of Naruto had caused Minato and Kushina to wince, their heads drooping a bit. Naruto was always a sore subject with the two parents in particular, because every mention of him just reminded them of how much they failed to be good parents to him. It had been 7 years since Naruto had vanished from Konoha, and the worst part is, they didn't even realize he had been gone until Mito had pointed out how she hadn't seen him for a week.

Due to Naruto not possessing Chakra, or even a Chakra network, they had focused on their Daughter far so much that they had failed to give their son any of their attention. They weren't the only ones that were guilty, either. Kakashi had all but ignored Naruto, and Jiraiya considered Mito the apple of his eye, having little to no interest in Naruto. The only one who seemed to care was Tsunade, as the very second she had found out Naruto was missing, she immediately left Konoha with Shizune and Tonton in tow, and vowed to never return until she found Naruto, alive or dead. Mito blamed herself as the main reason that he had vanished, as because when Naruto was around, she would do everything to steal her parent's attention away from Naruto, and even blamed him for something she did, all because she felt he was beneath her for not having Chakra. Ever since he left, though, she had realized what she had done, and vowed that she would bring her Niisan home, if it was the last thing she ever did.

However, she had discovered a neat little thing she could to ensure her parents gave her access to a lot of stuff they wouldn't have let her have before. She often used Naruto's name to get what she wanted, and they would often cave to her demands, because they felt guilty for ignoring him when he was around. So, she knew that the perfect way to get a C-Rank going was for her to use his name. While she did feel regret over manipulating her parents like she was doing, she felt that she had to do it, because ever since he left, they had a tendency to baby her and overprotect her, as if they were afraid that she would up and disappear on them as well. If that's what she needed to do, than so be it. After all, ninjas used any and all tools at their disposal in order to achieve their goals, and that's what she was doing.

Minato, predictably, caved in with a sigh. He ran his hand through his hair and muttered words under his breath unintelligibly as he sorted through the available C-Ranks, analyzing them and reading through them with a critical eye. After sorting through the papers a bit, he found one that seemed rather easy and simple to do. A simple escort mission to Wave, a bridge builder by the name of Tazuna needing a single team of ninja to protect him from bandits. It sounded simple, easy, and relatively safe for his daughter to take. At least, it was a lot safer than the other C-Ranks involved, which involved entering countries that had their own Ninja Forces. Most of them were in Countries that had coldly neutral to Konohagakure, at best, and he would be damned before he sent his daughter into an enemy country before she was ready.

Shrugging his shoulders and having made his decision, he smiled at Mito and informed them of the details. "I have a relatively simple mission for you, then, Team 7. A Bridge Builder by the name of Tazuna needs a team to protect him from bandits. This should be safe enough to send you, think of it as a little test to see how far you've gone. Send Tazuna in, Amaka-Chan" the Yellow Flash said to Team 7 for a moment, before calling out to his secretary. In a flash, a drunken old man with a bottle of sake clutched into his hand in a way that made it seem like the sake bottle was his most priceless treasure, and looked at the team assembled before.

"All I get are a bunch of brats, Hokage-Sama? They look like a fierce enough breeze would shatter half of the bones in their bodies" he slurred out in a drunken haze, which caused Mito, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno to scowl in irritation. Minato shook his head in an exasperated manner, before looking at Tazuna with a serious gleam in his crystal blue eyes.

"I assure you that Team 7 is fully capable of protecting you from bandits, Tazuna-San. Bandits are rarely a threat to Ninjas so long as the ninjas in question are adequately trained. Besides, you have my student Kakashi with you, so even if the Genin aren't up to snuff, he should be able to deal with the bandits himself" Minato informed Tazuna in a patient manner, taking particular notice of the sudden nervousness that overcame the bridge builder. Minato noticed out of the corner of his eye that Kushina had also taken notice of Tazuna's nervousness, which was good as he didn't just imagine it.

"I am sure my cute little Genin are more than up to the challenge of facing mere bandits, Minato-Sensei" Sharingan no Kakashi said with an eye smile. Tazuna nervously nodded his head, and left the office, Team 7 doing the same. Somehow, Minato's uneasiness wasn't comforted by the reassurance of his student.

 **-The Next Day-**

It was a whole new day in Konohagakure, and Team 7 was alright right out the gates, in typical Manji Formation. Their forms were lax, as because they weren't expected to arrive in Wave for quite a number of hours. Mito was giddy, as because that means that she could start looking for her Oniichan and bring him home. That, and she was finally on a real mission, even if she found the client to be a useless old drunk. Taking the time to look at her surroundings, she chose to examine her teammates, one at a time.

First, there was Sakura Haruno. Sakura started out as a shy bookworm with confidence issues a mile wide, but ever since Mito befriended her, she had come out of her shell, and was a Kunoichi that the Uzumaki-Namikaze could fully trust to watch her back. Perfect Chakra Control, decent reserves, a Doton Affinity, proficiency in Iryojutsu, she was a well-rounded, and excellent teammate to have. She had even tied for Kunoichi of the Year with Mito, albeit it was because her book smarts had helped even out her inferior practical grades, well, inferior to Mito, at least. Mito's paper grades, on the other hand, weren't as good as her practical exams, and that was what lead to them tying.

Then there was Sasuke Uchiha, a boy who was haunted by the massacre of the his Clan at the hands of his older brother, Itachi. Fully-matured Sharingan, Katon and Raiton Affinities, excellent Genjutsu and Taijutsu, he was rising on up and up with the help of Kakashi-Sensei, Sakura, as well as Mito and her family. They were very close friends at one point, until the massacre happened, then Sasuke pushed her and everyone else away, at first. However, her Kaachan Kushina was a good friend of Sasuke's Kaachan Mikoto, and she didn't allow Sasuke to wallow in that dark pit he was in for long. Thanks to Mito and the rest of her family, Sasuke had come a long way to letting go of the hatred and desires of revenge in his heart. He still wanted to bring his Older Brother down, but now he wanted to do it as a team.

There was very little she could say about Kakashi-Sensei. He was a damned good Ninja, and had taught all three of them quite a lot. It was mainly because of them that they had learned how to work as a cohesive unit. Then there was Mito herself, Futon and Suiton Affinities, excellent Kenjutsu, massive Chakra Reserves, mastery of her Four-Tailed Bijuu Shroud, a Sensor, she was a virtual powerhouse, if she may say so herself. All three of them had dreams, and they were going to achieve them together. She didn't know what she would do if she didn't have her team with her.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Sasuke whispered in his ear about a mysterious puddle laying in the middle of the road. Blinking her eyes in surprise, she looked at the puddle, and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Why would there be a puddle in the middle of the road, when it hasn't rained in days? Taking a glance at Kakashi and Sakura, she could tell by their expressions that they had noticed it as well. Considering they were all in the know, there shouldn't really be any surprises waiting for them. Just as they passed by the puddle, two Kirigakure Nuke-Nin appeared out of the puddle, and rushed at them. Too bad for them that Sakura had prepared a Genjutsu in advance, and quickly caught them in the Magen: Jubaku Satsu Genjutsu, which froze them in place long enough for Mito and Sasuke to unleash a Collaboration Jutsu on them.

Quickly forming handseals, they called out the names of their Techniques as Kakashi and Sakura grabbed Tazune and got out of range. **"Futon: Daitoppa!/Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!"** in a flash, their Techniques were unleashed, and the Demon Brothers were turned to ashes. After Team 7 high-fived each other, Kakashi turned to Tazuna and glared at him, demanding an explanation from him without saying a word.

Tazuna started sweating nervously, and broke down in a flash, telling them the circumstances surrounding his duplicity. While Team 7 understood his plight, the fact that the client lied and got them involved a mission that they clearly weren't ready for was something that they couldn't ignore. No matter how much Tazuna begged them or tried to guilt-trip them, they wouldn't budge. In a flash, they were sprinting back to Konoha, leaving a broken Tazuna crying on the ground as his last hope seemed to vanish in a flash. Or, at least, so it seemed to Tazuna. From his position in the trees, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed assassin observed the whole debacle between Tazuna and Team 7, finding it amusing that his baby sister would actually cut and run like that. This was good for him, because it meant he could perform his mission without that bratty redhead getting in his way and having Konohagakure try and drag him back home. He was well aware that the redhead was a sensor, but since he lacked Chakra, and get tight reign over his emotions, she had been unable to sense him.

Deciding that now was the time to make his appearance, he jumped out of the trees he was in, and landed in front of the still-kneeling Tazuna, looking down at him with a smirk. Tazuna, upon noticing a new person standing in front of him, stopped his sobbing, and looked up at the man standing over him. The Bridge Builder took notice of the symbol on the front of the man's outfit, and widened his eyes as he backed away.

"What do you want?" Tazuna asked, shaking from head to toe in fear over the mere presence of the 17 year old blonde in front of him. Mercenary Tao's smirk widened just a bit, and spoke up.

"I am the man that holds your very fate in your hands, you miserable old drunk. If you don't wish to die, I suggest you listen up" he said in a derisive manner, which caused Tazuna to stiffen up and go silent. Upon seeing this, the assassin nodded his head and spoke once more. "I overheard your conversation about how Tazuna wants you dead. My name is Mercenary Tao, and I have been hired by a client, who shall remain nameless, to kill Gato. Since Gatz has Ninja after your head, I figure protecting your miserable hide will allow me to not only complete my mission, but collect some bounties while I'm at it. What do you say, old man?" he asked the man with that smirk still on his face.

Tazuna's eyes widened in surprise when the person he thought to be an assassin sent to kill him said what he said. He was out to kill Gato? This was excellent news, his country could be free from that midget scumbag at last! He got on his hands and knees, clasped his hands and knees, and proceeded to beg.

"I'll do anything if it means freeing my country from Gato, anything! Just please help me out" he begged Mercenary Tao desperately, which caused the blonde teenager to chuckle in amusement. Of course he would do anything to save his country. Tazuna and the people of Wave were wounded animals, and wounded animals were always desperate to get away. Which is why he saw this as a business opportunity for himself. He would be able to accomplish three jobs all at once in the same country. It just meant more and more money for him, after all.

"Anything, you say? Well, in that case, I have a condition. When your little armpit of a country gets it's economy back, your country has to pay me 10 Million Ryo, and not anything less than that when your bridge is done, and Gato is dead" Mercenary Tao demanded of the Bridge Builder, smirking much like a shark honing on a bleeding prey.

Tazuna rapidly nodded his head, bowing to Mercenary Tao as he did so to show that he agreed. Seeing this, Mercenary Tao grinned excitedly and indicated for his new client to stand up, which the old Wave-born man did. Mercenary Tao then made a shooing motion with his hand, telling Tazuna to lead the way. When Tazuna started moving towards the border to Wave Country once more.

 **-Timeskip-**

Tazuna and Mercenary Tao continued on their way to Nami no Kuni, the Bridge Builder shrugging off the heavy mist that was rolling in. He seemed far more occupied with glancing at his impromptu employee every now and then. Mercenary Tao, having had enough of the constant staring, glared at the man with his teeth gritted into an irritated scowl and snapped at him.

"Why do you keep looking at me, you accursed drunk? If you keep it up, I'll leave you with no eyes left to stare at me with" he growled at Tazuna, which caused said Bridge Builder to pale and stutter out an apology.

"I-I'm sorry, I was j-ju-just wondering why you l-l-l-look like the Hokage" he quickly got out, which caused Mercenary Tao to quirk his lips up into an amused smirk.

So that's what the staring was about, was it? He got that a lot when it came to people who were aware of what the Yondaime Hokage looked like. They often wondered why he looked so much like the man, and most of the time, it was his victims who asked him about his appearance. Feeling no need to keep the information about his connection with the Yondaime a secret, since he doubted anyone would come to the Bridge Builder with the intent to seek out his identity, he found no reason to deny the man of the knowledge about who he was.

"The man donated his sperm to the woman that birthed me into this world. That's all you need to know, now keep moving" he sneered at his employer, which caused Tazuna to gulp and continue on his way, his fear overriding the surprise he felt towards this young man being the son of the Yondaime. Like that, the journey continued, but not for long. The mist kept growing thicker and thicker, so much so that Tazuna was commenting on it. Mercenary Tao took that as a sign that there was something going on, and made sure to keep all of his senses peeled for any sign of trouble. His senses were extremely sensitive, on the level of a canine, since it helped him keep track of his surroundings at all times and hunt any targets that might be trying to flee from him. Finely-trained senses only made him even more deadly, after all.

Mercenary Tao's ears twitched when it heard the sound of a large blade twirling through the air behind him. In a flash, he forcefully pushed Tazuna to the ground, and then after folding his arms behind his back once more, back-flipped over the large Zanbatou and landed gracefully on his feet. The Zanbatou, which he recognized as the legendary Kubikiribouchou, which if he wasn't mistaken, belonged to that of Zabuza Momochi. Interesting turn of events this was, was the thought of the blonde Mercenary. No sooner than did that thought race through his mind, did Zabuza appear on top of the blade.

Zabuza turned to look at the Bridge Builder, and took in the form of Mercenary Tao. "Interesting, I was under the impression that it was Sharingan no Kakashi and three Genin brats that were protecting that old drunk. Instead, I see a single blonde teenager, which just makes my job easier. Hand over the old man, and I don't have to kill you, whoever you are" Zabuza said to Mercenary Tao in a gruff tone of voice, assuming that just because Mercenary Tao was an unknown to him that he won't have any problem dispatching him.

Poor, poor Zabuza, he had no idea what was about to befall him. Mercenary Tao just let out a derisive scoff. "It doesn't matter if you don't know who I am. After all, I couldn't care less what a corpse thinks of me. As for me handing over the old man, I'd prefer to let him keep his miserable little life, kill you and your miscreant boss, and collect my many paychecks" he sneers at Zabuza, which caused the Demon of the Hidden Mist to narrow his eyes and jump off his Zanbatou. He then clenched the handle, plucked it out of the tree, and then thickened the Mist with his Kirigakure no Jutsu.

"Now then, larnyx, liver, spine, lungs, clavicle vein, jugular, kidneys, heart. All of them so vulnerable, which one should I strike?" Zabuza asked, his voice seeming to echo in the mist. As Tazuna shook in his boots, Mercenary Tao let out a dismissive scoff. He could sense the Killing Intent in the mist, and easily deduced that that fanciful speech the Demon of the Hidden Mist made was just some foolish attempt to make him shake in his boots. Mercenary Tao did not cower in fear, he made others cower in fear, and Zabuza was gonna learn that today, in his last few moments before he suffered a death most violent and painful.

"What are you, an underachieving lazy little boy? You should hit all of them, of course. No kill like overkill" he called out into the mist mockingly, keeping his senses sharp and open so that he could figure out when Zabuza was coming. Hearing the harshly blowing wind coming from a specific direction, he quickly intercepted what he thought was Zabuza Momochi with a well-placed knife-hand chop to his throat. Zabuza let out a choking sound, before he then dissolved into water. The real Zabuza then appeared behind Tao, and attempted to cleave him in two vertically with his Zanbatou. It seemed like he succeeded, as the cleaver went straight through him, but it didn't seem to do anything. Suddenly, what was supposed to be Mercenary Tao grew rather shaky and fuzzy, and then disappeared into the mist, almost as if it was just a mirage.

Unknown to the A-Ranked Nuke-Nin, Mercenary Tao had made excellent use of the **Zanzoken** , and quickly reappeared behind Zabuza. He performed a deadly fast palm strike that seemed to pierce directly through Zabuza's abdomen, which caused said Nuke-Nin to look down at the hand going through his body with bulging eyes, before Zabuza then turned into water again, revealing that it was yet another Mizu Bunshin. Mercenary Tao, with his arms still folded behind his back, jumped backwards as Zabuza attempted to cleave in half at the waist with his Zanbatou, before then lunging forward and landing a particularly mean left hook into the Kirigakure Nuke-Nin's face. Hissing in pain, Zabuza staggered back a bit, and Mercenary Tao took advantage by kicking him in the abdomen with a quick front kick, and then using that same leg to then launch his foot skywards and slammed the ends of his toes right into Zabuza's chin, which snapped the Shinobigatana Nonaninshu's head skywards. Thankfully for Zabuza, his neck wasn't snapped.

Tao quickly attempted to perform a spinkick on Zabuza, only for the man to regain his bearings and spin out of the way, smashing his head forcefully into Tao's face, hitting him in the stomach with the pommel of his blade, and then slamming the flat end of his blade into the mercenary's body to smack him into the ground. Tao hit the ground with a loud crack, and actually bounced off of it for a moment from the sheer force of the hit. As he bounced off of the ground, he flipped himself backwards and landed on the blade of Zabuza's massive sword. He then brought his hands forward, and used the **Mashin Gan Tsuki** , assaulting Zabuza's stomach with a volley of fingertip punches, the last one sending the Nuke-Nin forcefully into a tree. As Zabuza slid down the tree and hacked up a bit of blood, Mercenary Tao gracefully landed feet first on the ground again, and cracked his neck.

"Well well well, looks like the Demon of the Mist isn't all he's cracked up to be. Getting slow in your old age, has Arthritis finally set in?" he questioned the former Shinobi Swordsman with a chuckle, Zabuza's response was to glare up at him and start gathering hand seals.

 **"Suiton: Mizurappa!"** Zabuza shouted, calling out the name of his Jutsu as he spit a powerful wave of water out of his mouth and Mercenary Tao. In a flash, he quickly brought his arms forward, and took the brunt of the Jutsu's damage to his arms. As the Jutsu hit him, he stamped his feet into the ground and was slowly dragged backwards from the force of it, which caused his feet to make long, deep dragmarks into the ground. However, the Jutsu soon ended, and Mercenary Tao brought down his arms, which appeared heavily bruised and lacked sleeves.

Clapping mockingly over Zabuza's little achievement, Mercenary Tao proceeded to sprint at his opponent, who decided to get away from the tree he was pressed up against. The Demon of the Mist growled in irritation over his opponent's continued mocking of him, and as the bloodlust gathered in his eyes, he attempted to kick Mercenary Tao away. Tao's response was to slap the offending appendage away, and brought his elbow down on Zabuza's knee with such force his leg bent at a painful angle. Grunting as pain shot up his leg, he was assaulted by a flurry of punches and elbow strikes that were aimed directly at his lungs, his throat, and his solar plexus, all of which were done for the sole purpose of knocking the breath out of Zabuza. Due to the damage done to his leg, Zabuza was hit by the strikes, and he gasped out for breath as he was forced to kneel from the pain in his leg.

Mercenary Tao smirked down evilly at Zabuza, and lashed out with a quick kick to the temple, causing Zabuza to slam face-first into the ground. Before Zabuza could get up, the assassin proceeded to pick up Kubikiribouchou with one hand, and tossed it into the lake like it was nothing more than unwanted garbage. Upon seeing this, Zabuza was filled with rage, and slammed Mercenary Tao to the floor, assaulting him with stomps. Tao proceeded to grab Zabuza's foot, and snapped it painfully to the side, then threw Zabuza into the direction of the lake.

"You seem to have gotten rusty during your time as a Nuke-Nin, Momochi-Chan. Either that, or your reputation is highly overrated. Whatever the case may be, you're worthless garbage" Tao commented to the so-called Demon in a scornful manner. Growling in an enraged manner, both from the words his opponent constantly threw at him, as well as the way the fight was going, he had decided that enough was enough. He had yet to see a single Jutsu or any sign of Chakra be used by his opponent, so he had assumed that his enemy didn't know how to use it. So, getting an idea, he quickly retreated to the middle of the lake, and started forming hand seals.

"You've put up a decent fight so far, but I have a bridge builder to kill, so I'll end this right now" Zabuza called out, going through his hand seal sequence and acting as if he had the match in the bag. Mercenary Tao, upon seeing how long he was taking to form what was clearly the **Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu** , he had felt that it was time he put an end to this little match of theirs.

Chuckling to himself, Mercenary Tao stuck out his finger, which started to glow. **"Dodonpa FIRE!"** he called out, before a thin, deadly fast beam rocketed towards Zabuza. Since he was too busy forming hand seals for his Water Dragon attack, he was thus unable to avoid the Technique. As his life flashed before his eyes, Mercenary Tao's signature attack just cruised on past him and hit something in the trees. Caught off-guard over being alive, he had decided to mock the Mercenary.

"I have no idea what Technique it was you used, but it seems you need more practice. You didn't even come close to hitting me, amateur" Zabuza mocked, deeply enjoying his turn at doing the mocking for once. However, Mercenary Tao didn't seem worried in the slightest. In fact, all he did was start laughing. Irritated over this sudden outburst of laughter, Zabuza snapped out at his infuriating opponent. "What the hell is so funny?!" he snapped out at the blonde Mercenary.

"I wasn't aiming for you. I was aiming for your masked friend in the trees" was all he said, which caused Zabuza's eyes to widen as a masked figure fell out of the trees and into the lake, quickly sinking beneath the waves. As Zabuza turned to look at his precious tool, his eyes bulged out in shock when he saw perfectly circular hole going clear through the mask, through Haku's head, and out of the other side. The sight shocked him so much, that it actually caused him to momentarily stop his handseal sequence. Naturally, this hesitation was capitalized on by Mercenary Tao.

 **"Dodonpa FIRE!"** he called out again, firing one of his prized Techniques at Zabuza. The Demon of the Hidden Mist realized only too late what happened, and all he could do was turn around and watch as the energy beam pierced through his heart. Letting out a blood-filled gargle, the Demon of the Mist fell face-first into the lake, and sunk with his partner into the waves. Grinning evilly over what had just transpired, he quickly dove in after his two victims, and proceeded to retrieve their bodies. He then pulled out one of his modified sealing scrolls, unraveled them, and sealed away the bodies and the sword of the two Kirigakure fugitives. With that said and done, he pocketed his scroll, and turned back to a shell-shocked Tazuna.

"Well then, old man, I believe it's time we get you home, hm?" he asked the Bridge Builder, which caused him to nod his head rapidly, and quickly lead the man to his home where his daughter and grandson were.

 **-Meanwhile, in Gato's Hideout-**

"Some Demon of the Hidden Mist he is. Toothless worm is more like it" Gato mocked Zabuza after finding out that he and his masked apprentice had been slain, before he was silenced by the arrival of another Kirigakure Ninja. The figure stepped into the light, revealing a long mane of redhair, and a shark-like grin filled with sharpened teeth. Strapped to this person's side appeared to be two Katanas.

"So, Zabuza has failed, has he? I wonder who was capable of such a feat. Whoever it is, should prove to be a fine meal, perhaps the finest there is. Rest assured, Gato-San, that this fine meal will be devoured, and you'll have your bridge builder" came the sultry chuckle of the redheaded Kunoichi in the room, before she then stepped out of the light, and then seemingly vanished.

* * *

 **A/N:** **There we have it, the second chapter is finally done. I apologize if I seemed a little quick with the dismissing of Team 7, I just felt they weren't really needed at this point in time. Sorry if their parts were too quick for you, but I felt they needed to be for the sake of the story. As for the person in the end, I wonder how many people are gonna guess who she is.  
**


	3. The Build Up

**A/N:** **Hello all, RivalsToLovers here once more, and the next Chapter is here. Before I get started on the story, let me make something clear about the fight with Zabuza, as well as respond to some Reviewer-posted stuff, since I forgot to do it in the previous chapter. *sweatdrops*  
**

 **I'm sure you all have noticed that despite the hits that Zabuza laid on Tao, it didn't seem like he was affected all that much? Well, you see, to answer that question, I had decided that since one of Tao's main specialties would, obviously, be Taijutsu, it would make sense for him to toughen up his body to insane levels, allowing him to tank damage most people wouldn't be able to. This is not an absolute defense, far from it, as there are still attacks that can end his life if they hit him, rather, what this does is that this makes him more resilient to attacks in general, allows him to shrug off pain, and will let him push through injuries that aren't totally debilitating or outright lethal. He'll still go about avoiding attacks he knows for a fact will end his life should he get hit by him, or defending against them by some other means. I decided to go with this route, because I wanted opponents that could actually push him to still get hits in and make things a tad bit more even, still display some kind of threat.**

 **thewhitedragon1993** **\- Thank you kindly for giving me a positive review. I was worried my writing would put people off. :3 As to the whole thing about maybe making Naruto cowardly like Tao was in the Manga, I wasn't really gonna do that. Considering Naruto is pretty much like Tao, an arrogant showoff, and is extremely confident in his own abilities, I figured it wouldn't make sense for him to be a coward. I might still have him use filthy tactics, but he won't be a coward, no. As for the killing with his tongue or tree surfing thing, I was gonna have him do that at some point in time, anyway. He wouldn't be Mercenary Tao if he didn't do those things. As for the Fu suggestion, I like Fu a lot myself, personally, but I'm not sure how well I'd be able to fit her in. I plan to have Tao do all kinds of things that will earn him attention the more time goes on, and if Fu is to start traveling around with him, she'll need to get stronger WAY faster. Considering Tao doesn't have Chakra, I'd be hardpressed to figure out how she would do that on her own. :( I'll do my best to think of a solution, though, if I go down that route.**

 **Lurker(Guest Review) \- Thank you for the positive feedback. To be perfectly honest, I'm not really a huge fan of the mustache on Naruto myself, but I have this thing where I like to keep core traits of a character intact, and I just feel it would be wrong to have Naruto pretty much be Mercenary Tao, but not have his likeness down almost exactly. While I agree facial hair doesn't really suit Naruto, the mustache is something that I feel has to stay.**

 **A Reader(Guest Review) \- Thank you for the positive reinforcement. I always feel sad with how rare stories about Mercenary Tao or characters modeled after him are. Tao, in my opinion, was one of the greatest villains in the DB Franchise, at least. He was doing things that no other characters were capable of at the time, and he was the one villain that changed the landscape of Dragon Ball Villains, going from more silly and mildly threatening characters, to the darker, more malicious, far more threatening villains.**

 **In regards to the Genjutsu theory, you're absolutely right about that, it does make him immune to Genjutsu, as that art involves inserting your own Chakra into your intended victim, and he does not even have a Chakra Network, much less Chakra to use.**

 **Guren could work, and if I could find some way to buff her up to S-Rank-Nin Status, I could see that being a thing. My response to the suggestion about Fu is the same as what I said to thewhitedragon1993. In regards to this going in the Dragon Ball category, I went with the DBZ section for a couple of reasons. DBZ Crossovers get more hits, so that makes it more likely that my FanFic will be noticed, and also because DB, DBZ, and DBGT are pretty much the same thing. I know they're technically different things, but since they all take place in the same universe, I feel like they should all be bunched together into one category, instead of having three different characters.**

 **CreedRazerReaper \- It's alright if you have minimum knowledge of DB and DBZ. You aren't required to know a lot of lore, because this FanFic is still pretty much Naruto, just with Mercenary Tao in it. Mercenary Tao will be the only DB/Z stuff that shows up in the story. In regards to the whole 'Naruto with Saiyan powers' thing, I like those FanFics from time to time as well, but the problem with it in a Naruto setting is that the Saiyan Physiology can make Naruto so damn powerful that there isn't really any excitement in the action. I just don't feel DBZ Elements should fit in a Naruto setting. DB stuff is fine, since DB is relatively within the same ballpark of power as the Naruto-verse, whereas DBZ isn't. That's just how I feel, personally As for not remembering much about Mercenary Tao, it's a shame, as he has a lot of awesome moments, and he serves as a pivotal change in how Dragon Ball Villains are portrayed. As for Naruto's Professionalism, his personality and such is mainly what Tao was like. Samui seems like she could be an interesting choice, but the problem is beefing her up to S-Rank, and getting her to leave the village to travel with Tao. I'll see what I can do. :3 Tao is all about the money, but he's also big on his freedom. He feels no obligation to protect Konohagakure, and will only affiliate with them should they pay him to do so. He's not big on taking orders unless he's being paid money to do so. He's pretty much a freelancer in every sense of the word.**

 **Soledge1 \- I suppose that could work, but I'm not sure how I really feel about the idea behind it. I'm open for the Naruto/Yugito pairing, but Kumo is very protective and progressive with their treatment of Jinchuuriki, and I can't really see any of those Scenarios happen. As for the whole getting back at the Leaf thing, Naruto doesn't have desires of revenge, anger, and hatred against Konohagakure. No one in the village really paid attention to him, and it's hard to have emotions, positive or negative, to those you've never spent time with. He wouldn't seek out personal revenge from Konohagakure unless they've done something extreme enough to earn it. He would usually be more of the type to take Missions that does something to affect Konohagakure negatively.**

"Talking"

 _'Mental Speech'_

 _*Thinking*_

 **"Bijuu/Inner Personality/Cursed Seal Talking"**

 _ **'Bijuu/Inner Personality Mental Speech'**_

 _ ***Bijuu/Inner Personality Thinking***_

 **Jutsu/Technique Names  
**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: The Buildup  
**

After a while of traveling, Mercenary Tao and Tazuna arrived at the Bridge Builder's home. A surprisingly sober Tazuna walked up to the door, and knocked on the door. Tao's sensitive hearing picked up the sound of footsteps approaching the door from inside of the home, and just as soon as the footsteps stopped, the door opened, revealing an attractive young lady standing there. Mercenary Tao looked her up and down, placing her as nothing more than a housewife, and considering the expression on Tazuna's face, it appeared that he knew her. The fond smile on his face was what gave it away, after all. The woman, in return, smiled in a relieved manner, and hugged Tazuna tightly. Tao curled his lips up in disgust at the soft display of affection, but stayed silent, allowing the two their little moment.

Once the two separated, the woman spoke up. "Tousan, I'm glad to see you're safe. Did you get those Konoha Ninja like you said you would?" the housewife, who was now identified as Tazuna's Daughter, spoke up to the Bridge Builder. Tazuna just sighed and rubbed his eyes. His Daughter immediately picked up on the sadness her Tousan was feeling, and looked at him with a depressed frown. Naturally, the woman did not seem to notice the exceptionally deadly Mercenary Tao standing close by to her Father. Tao wasn't surprised in the slightest, as it just showcased how utterly moronic and oblivious untrained civilians could be.

"What's wrong, Touchan? Are they not coming?" she asked her Father with a surprised expression. While not necessarily super knowledgeable about how Ninja worked in general, people from all over the Elemental Nations held at least some passive knowledge in how helpful and people-friendly Konoha was, always willing to lend aid to other countries. The fact that they would just leave the people of Nami no Kuni to their fate was something that didn't make sense to the civilian woman in the slightest.

"They were going to come, but when they figured out I lied about the mission details, even after I told them what was going, they decided to just leave me to my fate" Tazuna said, pulling the brim of his hat down. Tsunami's eyes started to water, and she appeared ready to faint at the thought of losing another person that she loved dearly. Tazuna, upon seeing the reaction his precious daughter had to what he said, quickly spoke up to try and get rid of her sadness.

"Stay calm, Tsunami, because our people still have hope. This is Mercenary Tao, and he's decided to help us out, and he is damn good. I was attacked by one of the Ninja Gato hired, and Tao just wiped the floor with him and his accomplice. So long as he's around, our troubles should be over" Tazuna said quickly, pointing to his left and revealing the semi-unknown assassin to Tsunami. Tao, upon hearing this, just sighed to himself. Great, just what he needed, to be revered upon by weaklings who cowered over the very mention of Gato's name. At least he'll wind up getting paid from this job one day, so he would do his best and keep his patience.

Tsunami turned to look at the proclaimed Mercenary, and looked at him with widened eyes. Although she could tell that he was obviously still a teenager, she could still tell that the pink-wearing assassin was a very deadly person. His outfit pretty much screamed murderer, after all, and the coldness in his eyes just further reinforced that this young man was not someone that was to be messed with. Tsunami's face paled just a tad bit as she looked at him, which Tao noticed, and responded to by smirking at her in an amused manner. Trying to hide her nervousness, Tsunami swallowed her fear and spoke up.

"G-Greetings, Tao-San. I appreciate you risking your life to help us get free of Gato's tyranny" Tsunami stuttered out a bit as she bowed to him in gratitude. Mercenary Tao, didn't bother bowing back, as that was a sign of respect, and he didn't respect this woman in the least. He simply kept his arms folded behind his back, and scoffed at her. Did she really think he was doing what he was doing to help them? He couldn't care less about the troubles these weaklings had, the only reason he was doing this was for his own monetary benefit. Had he not been hired by the Tsuchi no Kuni Daimyo, he might have wound up working for Gato instead. Only reason he chose not to kill Tazuna was because it was bad business sense to help the person your client asked you to kill.

"I'm not doing it to help you, I'm doing this for my own monetary benefit. Your problems are insignificant to me, and the only reason I helped out at all was because I saw a business opportunity in helping out your Tousan. Don't think of me as some hero, because I'm not here to save you all out of the goodness of my heart" he said in a condescending manner, grunting at her and turning his nose up at her. Nothing disgusted him more than the thought of people viewing him as some hero who would swoop in, solve everyone's problems, and then give out free love and hugs to make everyone feel better. The mere thought of Mercenary Tao being such a goodie-goodie almost made him gag.

Tsunami's eyes hardened over as she heard the way that Tao spoke to her, and the mercenary could tell that the woman would have liked nothing more than to hurl insults at him, force him away, and maybe even hit him. However, judging by the sweat he noticed gathering on her brown, he could tell that she was still very much afraid of him, and took that to mean that she was too afraid to ever try to do anything with him. She was a smart woman for holding herself back, because he would have felt no qualms about ending her life should she ever attempt such an abysmally foolish idea. Instead, Tsunami had swallowed once more, and bowed to him once more.

"Even so, I thank you for choosing to take the job we wanted the Konohagakure Ninja to take. I promise on behalf of Nami no Kuni that we'll find a way to pay you back when we are able to" Tsunami said to him after she stood up from her bow. Tao sneered at her and merely pushed her out of the way so that he may enter the house and get settled in, his arm placing itself back into a fist as it was folded behind his back once more. Tazuna caught Tsunami as she almost fell to the floor, and after helping her to steady herself, the two of them glared at Tao. While he may be helping them, they were far from happy over having him with them. As Mercenary Tao entered the house, he proceeded to look over his shoulder at the two.

"I will be staying here, and I won't pay a dime, because you can consider my protecting your worthless hide to be payment enough, Tazuna. After all, so long as Gato still lives, your life will still be in danger" Tao said to them for a moment, before continuing on his way into the house with Tazuna and Tsunami following in after him, closing the door behind. Tazuna sat down at the kitchen table and started partaking in some sake, and Tsunami attended to some pot that was being cooked on a stove. Tao, meanwhile, sat down and started undergoing deep meditation. However, that meditation didn't last long, as just after all three of them got into place, Tazuna spoke up to the assassin.

"All we have to do is finish the bridge, and Gato will lose his iron grip on the country. Even if Gato isn't killed, we'll still be free" Tazuna said to Tao in response to his comment about Gato still being a danger. The mercenary scoffed, finding that line of thinking utterly stupid. The worthless fool was just an innocent civilian after all, and as such, he was unable to see the flaws in that train of thought. While Tao did believe that there was nothing Gato or anyone else could do to stop the mercenary from completing his objective, he already knew of things that could be done to stop Tazuna aside from killing him.

"That's where you're wrong, you incompetent moron. So long as Gato lives, he is still a threat, so long as he has money, he can keep sending assassins after you. If Gato was desperate enough, he could just have his thugs set up explosives all over the bridge, blow up your giant heap of scrap metal, and then leave your people completely and totally crushed. There are many ways he could still defeat you without killing you, so long as he lives. You're just lucky that Gato is too damn stupid to go with such a plan" Tao scoffed at Tazuna, which caused Tsunami and the bridge builder to pale in shock once they realized he was right.

Right as the conversation ended, the front door to the house opened up, and in walked a small boy. Tao glanced at the boy, and raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Judging by the facial expressions of Tazuna and Tsunami, it was someone they knew, most likely another blood relative. Taking a closer look at the boy, Tao could see the despair, the hopelessness, the utterly crushed hope and defeat in his eyes. Seeing such a thing caused the mercenary to smirk in amusement. Seeing such misery and defeat in such a small boy reminded me of some of the kills he had made over his career.

"Kaachan, I'm back" came the voice of the boy. When he got to the kitchen, he blinked in surprise when he noticed Tazuna sitting there. The boy's face lit up with a smile, and he ran over to greet the bridge builder. Ah, so this boy happened to be Tazuna's Grandson, was he? How nauseatingly quaint. Tao quietly placed his arms on the table and underwent his meditation once again, and before he could truly get into it, the boy seemed to notice his presence.

"Who's this?" the boy asked in a suspicious tone of voice. Ah, the distrust, the suspicion, such a thing being shown by a child was quite amusing. The despair Gato dished out on this country must have messed the boy up something good. Either that, or there was a story he was missing. Regardless of what the reason, Tao found the boy's surly disposition rather amusing. It reminded me of the children that would hunt him down and try to get revenge for what he did to their families. He enjoyed the rage on their faces right before he could cut them down. As his thoughts turned darker, his amused smirk widened just that tad bit. Sadly, his thoughts were interrupted when Tazuna spoke up to his Grandson.

"Inari, this is Mercenary Tao. He's been hired to assassinate Gato, and he's decided to be my bodyguard in exchange for payment when we are able to pay him back" came the voice of Nami no Kuni's bridge builder, introducing his grandson to the pink-garbed assassin.

"He's going to die, Sofu! You should just tell him to just give up and run away while he can" was what Inari said in reply to his oldest family member, the whining rather obvious.

Mercenary Tao's nostrils flared in an irritated manner. Did this little brat just insinuate that Gato would kill him?! HIM, of all people?! Deciding to teach this little boy a lesson, blonde-haired, blue-eyed mercenary quietly slid out of his seat, and proceeded to loom over Inari menacingly with his eyes narrowed into a menacing glare. Though there was no Killing Intent radiating from him, the mere presence of the assassin standing over him like he was caused the boy to whiten and shake with fear. Getting the reaction he expected from the boy, his lips curled up into a dark sneer, looking down at Inari the way someone would look down at a pesky fly or mosquito.

The whole house became tense, no one made a single sound, and all three occupants of the house all stared at the assassin with nervousness and dread on their faces. None of the three people in the house dared to move for fear of provoking the sadistic mercenary. Whereas some people would stop there and be satisfied with the sense of dread they had instilled in someone that dared to doubt their skills, Tao decided to take it a step further. He slowly placed his right arm in front of his body, and pointed his index finger at Inari with a dark, malicious gleam in his eyes. Tazuna, knowing what the man could do with his finger, tried with all of his might to shield Inari, but the fear kept him held in place.

"So, you think some short, pudgy little midget can kill me, do you, boy? You fear Gato, do you? Well then, let's see if that fear of him lasts after this" Mercenary Tao said. However, there was something interesting about his index finger. It wasn't carrying the typical glow that one would associate with his signature **Dodonpa** attack. However, that didn't mean his finger wasn't dangerous, as Tao was a freak of nature when it came to hand-to-hand combat, and he had the ability to use even just a single finger to deal massive damage to someone.

In a flash, the man now called Tao launched his finger forward, and proceeded to impale it through Inari's abdomen, which caused Tazuna to shout in surprise, Tsunami to faint, and Inari to gasp out in pain. With a satisfied gleam in his eyes, Tao removed his finger from the hole in Inari's abdomen, and quickly wiped off the blood with a tablecloth. As Inari fell to the floor from having been knocked unconscious from the pain, Tazuna quickly raced to attend to Inari, and Tao merely just went upstairs, and quickly searched for the room that was his. He didn't worry about Inari dying, as due to his knowledge on human anatomy, he made sure to pierce through the brat's abdomen in a way that would ensure that he just lost some blood. He would have a large, hole-shaped scar when it healed, and he would remember the pain of having a finger pierce through his body for a long time, but he would live.

 **-Timeskip-**

It was late at night, 12 AM in fact, and everyone else other than Tao was asleep. Due to some connections he had, he had undergone a special body modification process that would allow him to operate at maximum efficiency with as little sleep as possible, which is why he was up at this time since he had already gotten all the sleep he needs for the day. Wearing dark blue nightwear and a pair of slippers, he had decided to make his way to a rundown bar to have a drink. The bar was filled with a bunch of bandits who appeared to take no notice of him, preferring to continue what they were doing before he had decided to walk into the bar.

"What will you have?" the bartender asked gruffly. Taopaipai ordered the strongest alcohol they had, and proceeded to pull out Ryo from the wallet he had. Of course, doing so had resulted in two bandits taking notice of the vast amount of money he seemed to be carrying with him, and they grinned to each other as they quietly discussed a plan that involved ambushing him. Unfortunately for them, Mercenary Tao's excellent hearing allowed him to pick up the plan being discussed, and easily picked out the two in question as he sipped at his drink. While Tao wasn't an alcoholic or anything, he still enjoyed having a drink every now and then. He would never allow himself to get drunk, of course, but he would always drink just enough to get a slight buzz, strong enough to feel some effect, but light enough that would allow him to still perform at optimal efficiency.

After he had downed his glass, he proceeded to push the glass towards the bartender, and walked out of the bar with his fists folded formally behind his back. Predictably, the two bandits who were planning on mugging him for his money followed after him, one wielding a crossbow, and the other wielding a spear. Mercenary Tao heard the obnoxiously loud footsteps of the two bandits following after him, and paid them no mind. They weren't really worth his time unless they decided to go through with that foolish little plan of theirs.

"Hey you, with the braided ponytail. Hand over your wallet and everything else of value you have on you" commanded the voice of the bandit that wielded the Crossbow. Mercenary Tao heard the command, but did not react to them at all. No change of facial expression, no verbal comment, no turning to face them, he didn't even stop walking. He simply continue his path back to Tazuna's house, not even bothering to acknowledge the worthless imbeciles. The two bandits growled at him, and once again tried to get his attention.

"Are you deaf or something, you ugly, mustachioed bastard? Hand over your valuables" this time, the bandit with the spear commanded him, and yet again, Mercenary Tao did not bother acknowledging them. The bandits, who already had short fuses as it was, snapped after the man seemed to ignore them and just kept walking away from him. The bandit with the spear nodded his head to the bandit with the crossbow, and that caused the bandit to aim said weapon at the blonde-haired mercenary. With a pull of the lever, he fired a deadly fast crossbow bolt at Tao. Yet, it seemed as if Mercenary Tao did not hear the discharge of the bolt, as he merely kept walking away.

Or at least, so it seemed to the bandits. In reality, Tao had heard the pulling of the lever, the sound of the bolt being fired, the whistling of the bolt flying through the air, and the whistling of the wind that alerted him to the oncoming attack. Without even bothering to stop walking, as he lifted his left leg open to bring it forward, he flung his foot backwards, causing the slipper to slide off of it and be launched up into the air at such speeds that it perfectly intercepted the bolt. As the bolt slammed into the floating slipper, the force of impact from the two objects colliding had caused the bolt to be ricochet off of the slipper and be propelled backwards at the bandit that fired the bolt. Before either bandit had time to react, the bolt impaled itself through the crossbow-wielding bandit's throat. With a single gurgle of death, the bandit fell over dead.

When the slipper was hit, it was propelled forward, over the still walking Tao's shoulder, and fell to the ground in front of Tao right at the moment where he moved his left leg again, causing him to slide his socked foot into the slipper. He did that without even breaking his stride in the slightest, and he didn't even bother to make any acknowledgement of what he had done. The bandit wielding the spear was completely shell-shocked for a moment as to what just happened, but broke out of his stupor long enough to let out a curse and charge at the blue-eyed assassin with his spear pointed forward. His move was obvious, he was attempting to impale the spear through Tao's back.

Naturally, Tao showed no indication that he was aware of what the bandit was doing, but he was. Right when it seemed like the bandit was going to be successful in his attempt, Mercenary Tao blurred out of sight in a burst of speed, reappeared to the bandit's right side, and proceeded to catch the spear by pinching it between his left thumb and index fingers in an underhanded position. The bandit growled and did his best to try and get the spear free, but despite Tao only gripping it with two fingers, the spear remained unmoving.

The bandit proceeded to stare into the cold, menacing blue eyes of the blonde assassin, and it was at that moment that he realized just what he had gotten into. While still holding onto the tip of the spear with only two fingers, he proceeded to twist his hand upside down, making sure to sweep the flat end of the spear up against the bandit's chest, and this caused him to hold the spear high up in the air, with the bandit laying horizontally on the flat end of it. Before the bandit could even make a sound, Tao pulled back on the spear for a moment, and then quickly drove the pole end of the spear forward with such speed that it pierced straight through the bandit's chest and sheered his lungs off. With a smirk on his face, he stabbed the spear into the ground and let the bandit left on that pole, suspended in the air and dying in a short amount of seconds.

Unknown to Tao, he was being watched by someone in the trees, and that person in the trees liked what she saw. She grinned a toothy, sharp-toothed grin of delight over seeing just a small taste of what this mysterious new protector of Tazuna could do. She knew of Mercenary Tao, all Ninja with a bounty on their heads made it a habit of learning the names of reputable bounty hunters, and she had plenty of things about him. Only hearing about him did not do him justice, it seems. She had a feeling that she was going to deeply enjoy fighting him.

* * *

 **A/N:** **There we have it, the next chapter is finished.  
**

 **I understand that the way Tao dealt with the crossbow bandit seemed a bit...questionable, but I assure you, Tao did something like that in Dragon Ball. There is a clip of him in YouTube where he does pretty much the same thing with a bullet. If you need a visual cue to better imagine what he did, just look up General repel a bullet like a boss, and you'll get a perfect visual representation of what he did. This is RivalsToLovers, signing off.**


	4. The Confrontation

**A/N:** **Hello all, RivalsToLovers here once more, and I'm coming at you with another Chapter. I know it seems like I'm going awfully fast with the chapters I'm pumping out, but I just can't help but write and write and write. I enjoy writing this story so much that I just can't sit still. I have to pump out another chapter, my inspiration is on fire! Anyway, first thing's first, I need to address my Reviewers.**

 **CreedRazerReaper \- Akatsuki will come into play at some point, yes. It is inevitable that they will butt heads. That is all I'll say on the matter, though, as I want to keep some secrets to myself ;). As for the pairing idea, it could work, but I think I know what pairing I want to do now, so I don't think I'll be accepting anymore pairing ideas. Sorry if the idea is sudden, considering it's the 4th Chapter, but considering I have yet to see this pairing, I'd like to take a shot at it.  
**

 **Please Read my stuff \- Aw, thank you, kind sir and/or madam. XDD I doubt I'll be quitting this story anytime soon, as I have a lot of inspiration for this story. :3 **

**thewhitedragon1993 \- Thank you for the positive review of the Chapter. The story behind how he got his power is a bit complicated, and it's a story I'll save until the time to reveal it comes. ;) In regards to whether or not he'll join the Akatsuki, he might, but he most likely won't. When the moment comes and does say no, I'll explain why. Kiri Civil War, maybe, I haven't had any plans to have him get involved in that, but that is an idea I could see using sometime down the road. The final one is, I don't believe there will be Bashing. I just feel it would detract from the focus of the story if I just bashed anyone. Most Bashing fics I've read have the characters that are bashed be taken to such ridiculous extremes that it's almost comical, and while Dragon Ball stuff tends to have some humor in it, I'm just not the type to write that stuff.**

 **I just want to say that Mercenary Tao will use some Techniques he didn't have in Canon, and before any dread can set into you, don't worry, it won't be any army killer attacks, or city destroying blasts, or anything widespread like that. Due to his style and all, he's not the type to use Techniques like that. Considering he's an Assassin, he's the type to be less loud than that. He'll start using Energy Waves and such, but I promise you that they won't be doing any widespread destruction. He might use DBZ-Era Techniques, but they won't be any super destructive Techniques. I know it may not seem fair that Naruto has Jutsus like that, and I'm not allowing Tao to have Techniques of a similar nature, but I just feel that since he's more of an Assassin and such, he would be more of the type to favor precision and skill over widespread destruction.**

 **As I mentioned in my second chapter, someone actually gave me a really good idea for a pairing, and it isn't something I've necessarily seen before. Looking up the woman in question, I have some ideas for her that would fit the dynamic perfectly. So, as I said to CrazedRazerReaper above, I am no longer accepting pairing requests. That being said, I hope you all enjoy the newest Chapter and enjoy the story. Don't forget to Review, Follow, and Fave, as feedback on my work gives me motivation to write. :3**

"Talking"

 _'Mental Speech'_

 _*Thinking*_

 **"Bijuu/Inner Personality/Cursed Seal Talking"**

 _ **'Bijuu/Inner Personality Mental Speech'**_

 _ ***Bijuu/Inner Personality Thinking***_

 **Jutsu/Technique Names  
**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The Confrontation**

It had been about a week and a half since Mercenary Tao and Tazuna had entered Nami no Kuni, and things were tense in the household. Inari had grown deathly afraid of Tao and often refused to be alone with him. Although, after that violent episode Tao had with the boy, he had since gone quiet and had yet to utter another word about how the blonde-haired assassin was gonna die by Gato's hands, which was perfectly fine with Mercenary Tao. That's what he had intended to do, make sure the boy that would never let such filthy garbage spill from his miserable lips again. Perhaps the boy even though of him being more terrifying than Gato, which would tickle Tao's fancy quite a bit.

Tsunami showed thinly veiled hostility towards him, the memory of what he did to her son forever earning him a spot on her hated people list. Whether or not he ranked higher on her list than Gato remained to be seen, though, as the woman was still too terrified of him to try and do something to him. She was smarter than most, because if she did try something, he would have slain her where she stood, regardless of what Tazuna and Inari's thoughts on the matter were. So long as the woman retained her common sense and realized that messing with him was a bad idea, he would be perfectly happy to let her live.

Tazuna outright loathed him, though, saying he was worst than Gato. The comment just made Tao smirk in amusement, treating it fully as a compliment. Yes, he fully believed that he was worse than Gato, and he had no issue with being seen as worse than him. He had a reputation to uphold, after all, and he wasn't the type of person to deny the fact that he was a monster. He took pride in such a thing, but he truly believed that what put him above other monsters, was his sense of business.

Every day, he guarded Tazuna while he did his work on the bridge, and all seemed well, but Mercenary Tao constantly had this feeling that he was being watched. His senses always picked up that someone was nearby, watching him, but he couldn't figure out who it was. The scent he was picking up smelled vaguely of rainwater, and...was that apples he smelled? It was interesting, but wholly unfamiliar to the mercenary, although he could tell that they were most certainly female. Whoever it belonged to, he knew for a fact that they were following him, and he deduced that, whoever they were, they were observing him. They weren't really learning a whole lot, as all the times they had observed him, he hadn't really shown off anything truly unique. Whatever their reason was for observing him, though, was something that was completely unknown to him.

Nevertheless, he was suspicion of this unknown person that seemed to be following him every time he was out and about. During all the times they had been following him, he had been guarding Tazuna, and he had yet to encounter a single problem so far. However, that was all about to change today. As Tao waited for everyone to go about their morning routines, he took Tazuna to the bridge to do his work. When they got there, though, they discovered that someone had butchered almost all of the workers. Tazuna went chalk white and retched over the side of the bridge at the sight of the mutilated bodies. Tao, on the other hand, barely batted an eye. Examining the corpses slowly, he raked his eyes over their forms, and took notice of the sword wounds.

 _*Hm, the wounds themselves are obvious from a blade of some kind, but there's also these curious burns so close to the_ _wounds*_ Tao thought to himself as he looked over the wounds. There appeared to be burns of some kind on the wounds, but they obviously weren't fire burns. His sensitive nose twitched as it picked up the peculiar scent on each of the victims. _*These are electricity burns, most likely from some kind of Raiton-based weapon*_ the mercenary thought to himself once more. That was when his nose picked up that scent again, the obviously female scent that had the stench of rainwater and apples. Narrowing his eyes, he took notice of the mist that started permeating the area.

 _*Hmph, another Kirigakure Ninja, I see. I wonder if it's another Shinibogatana_ _member*_ he thought to himself with a smirk on his face. Suddenly, he detected movement in the mist, and whoever the movement belonged to, they were clearly heading towards Tazuna. Quickly sliding a throwing knife into his hand from his right sleeve, he threw the blade with extreme speed towards where the sound came from. In a flash, he noticed an odd squelch sound, and then heard a sound of what sounded like water splashing on the bridge floor. Ah, so it was another **Mizu Bunshin** , marvelous. Then there was a silence for a few moments, before it was then broken by a sultry chuckle that came from right in his ear.

"I finally get to cross blades with you, Mercenary Tao. How joyous" said the voice right in his ear, but considering Tao did not sense a presence behind him, he didn't bother acknowledging the person that spoke to him. Just like the scent, the voice was clearly female in nature, and it caused him to narrow his eyes. He didn't bother with the usual banter yet, not until he knew who it was that he was facing off in Battle today. Suddenly, his ears picked up movement heading straight towards him. Picking up the sound of a blade slicing through the wind, coming from his right, he quickly jumped above the offending blade, and proceeding to bend his leg backwards to kick it in that direction. The result was his foot slamming into the face of the person who tried to slice him in two. As he landed, he felt the ground beneath him wet with water again, and his left eye twitched when he realized it was another **Mizu Bunshin**.

Still, the person had yet to show herself to him, and although he could pick up her scent and move towards her at any time, he felt that he could easily handle anything this woman could throw at him. Figuring himself to be her superior in every way, he kept his arms folded behind his back and allowed her to control the flow of battle for now. He narrowed his eyes when he detected multiple presences around him, he quickly pulled a throwing knife out from his sleeve, held out the hand that contained the throwing knife, and then spun around quickly, which caused him to hack through the **Mizu Bunshins** with ease. The voice spoke up once more, and his annoyance spiked up, but he did not let her know that he was aware of where she was, instead preferring to play around just a tad bit.

"Hiding weapons inside of your sleeves, hm? That is actually an ingenious idea. I'm impressed so far, Tao, but since my **Mizu Bunshin** aren't up to the task, I suppose you should meet the real deal" said the voice, and in a flash, the woman carrying the scent of rainwater and apples was in front of him, swing a pair of blades at him. A little caught off-guard by the speed, he jumped backwards just enough to avoid receiving a fatal injury by the blades. Of course, they still cut two fairly deep wounds in his stomach that started to bleed, and he felt the sting of lightning course through his body for that very short second that the blades had made contact with his flesh.

Hissing in annoyance, he made sure to get out of reach of the woman's blades, and took the time to analyze her. Upon looking her over, Tao's eyebrows rose up into his hairline when he recognized that of the strongest Shinobigatana Nonanishu member, that of Ameyuri Ringo. S-Rank Nuke-Nin, wielder of the twin Kiba Blades, killed more than half of the Mizukage's Elite Troops and wounded Yagura himself with a deep scar across the eye before fleeing Kirigakure after she was heavily wounded by said Mizukage. She was one of the most-wanted criminals in the world, and she was to be his opponent? Mercenary Tao grinned at the thought of facing her in combat, and he knew immediately that he would have to give it his all. He had fought a number of Ninja in his time, but this would be the first time he would cross blades with an S-Rank Ninja.

"Well well well, Ameyuri Ringo, the strongest of the Shinobigatana Kirigakure organization. I admit, I did not expect to see you here. Let me guess, Zabuza and his masked accomplice were minions of yours" Mercenary Tao said to Ameyuri in a snide manner. The swordswoman in question grinned a predatory grin at him, and nodded her head in the affirmative. After that little exchange, she lunged at Tao and attempted to bring her electrified twin blades down on top of the semi-known Assassin. In response to this, Tao quickly drew his blade from it's sheathe, and with just one hand clutching tightly on the hilt, he clashed his curiously white blade against hers and causing sparks to fly among them. He felt some minor strain as their blades clashed, and while the Kiba Wielder's strength was impressive, Tao's strength was massive due to his heavy focus on hand-to-hand combat, and because of that, he was capable of holding her back.

Ameyuri pressed down tightly on his curiously white blade, her shark-like teeth grinding together as she tried to slice through his blade. Something was wrong, her Kiba blades were the sharpest blades in the entire world, they should have been able to cut through his own blade, and on top of that, he wasn't being electrocuted by the powerful lightning flowing through her blades. Genuinely curious about this, she grunted out a statement as she twisted her body around to avoid his kick, and then spun away from him.

"My blades should have easily cut through your sword, and you should have blasted by the electrical charges going through my blades. That sword of yours isn't a metal blade, is it?" she asked him, before darting forward and then performing a clockwise spin with her swords sprayed out to her left. Tao quickly brought up his blade and blocked her blades with his own, and then sent her spinning with his exponential strength. Rather than being knocked off-balance from being sent spinning, the Female Shinobigatana member easily kept her footing and took advantage of the spin to try and cut into him, this time with her swords splayed out to the right. Tao was quick to defend himself by darting backwards away from the blades, and then lashed out with a punch at the left side of her cheek, which snapped her head to the side and sent her spinning backwards and away from him.

"How astute of you, Kirigakure garbage. This sword is a Kaguya bone sword, made out of one of the bones of the late Kaguya Patriarch, and not only are Kaguya blades indestructible, they're also made of bone, and bone doesn't conduct electricity" he said in reply, blurring out of sight and reappearing behind in a burst of speed as he attempted to slash all the way down through her spine. Ameyuri seemed to have realized where he disappeared to, and managed to lunge forward enough to avoid getting a crippling injury, though there was now a deep gouge going through her back that ripped the back of her shirt in two. Feeling the sting of the wound, she let out a let out a hiss, not one of pain, but one of enjoyment, because she finally had an enjoyable opponent to fight in a long while ever since she abandoned Kirigakure.

"That is quite a find, Tao. Lucky you. Interested in sating my curiosity by telling me where you acquired it?" she asked with a cheeky grin on her face, spinning around and using the momentum and to send her forward at her opponent. She slashed at Tao once as she spun, then stopped mid-momentum, spun the other way to slash at him again, spun back the other way to slash at him again, then repeated the cycle until she had thrown a total of more then 30 slashes in the span of a mere three seconds. Her spins and movements were so quick that it legitimately looked like that a miniature tornado was forming around her with every spin she performed. Tao's response to this was to quickly bring up his sword, and deflect each blow she threw at him as he skillfully glided with nimble feet across the bridge, making sure to be mindful of his surroundings so that she doesn't trap him up against a wall.

While Tao most certainly had the strength to outmatch her, and incredible speed to go along with it, Ameyuri was very nimble, and wasn't giving him to fully incorporate his strength behind his blows. That being said, it was clear to tell that the redhead wasn't giving it her all, and to be honest, Tao wasn't doing his absolute best, either. As the two exchanged blows with their blades, they appeared to dance across the bridge, their forms a fuzzy blur as Ameyuri slowly pushed Tao around the bridge.

"Maybe I'll tell you as you lay dying at my feet. After all, dead women tell no tales" Tao retorted in a snide manner as the androgynous former Kirigakure Kunoichi jumped onto the guard rail of the bridge to give herself more height, and managed to perform a very acrobatic spin on the very guard rail and tried to slash at him once more while maintaining perfect balance. Tao quickly ducked underneath the slash, and then managed to strike her in the stomach with the hilt his bone sword, before headbutting her in the chest and then sweep kicking her off of her feet. Ameyuri took the full brunt of the attacks, and if she were a lower ranked member, than she would have normally fell back-first onto the guard rail. However, she was a full-blown S-Rank Ninja, and she quickly spun herself away from Tao horizontally in the air, sliding the blade in her right hand into her left and then stopping herself by performing a one-handed hand stand on the guard rail with her now free hand. She then slammed down feet first onto the guard rail, slid her other sword back into her free hand, then lunged at Mercenary Tao and attempted an x-shaped cross slash on Tazuna's bodyguard.

The pink-garbed assassin quickly spun away from the attack, and jumped onto the guard rail. He then lunged at her and assaulted her with a barrage with quick, fencing thrusts of the blade, also showing incredible balance on the thin guard rail. The Mistress of the **Silent Killing** Technique quickly sprinted backwards as she twisted and turned her body around to avoid the thrusts of his blade, before striking him in the face with the hilt of her left Kiba blade, and while it stunned him for a split second, it barely did more than that. However, that split second was all she needed, as she quickly assaulted his chest with a spinning slash of her blades. Tao managed to recover in time to avoid the attack, but unfortunately for him, she managed to cut across his left arm enough to leave profusely bleeding deep gouges in it, and he grit his teeth as the lightning on the blades coursed through him and shocked his system.

"Such arrogance, how manly of you, Tao. The meal grows more delicious by the second" she retorted with a shark-like grin, to which lead to him growling in irritation as he jumped off of the guard rail and attempted to slash her feet off of her legs. Ameyuri, though, chuckled and proceeded to jump to avoid the blade, before letting out a cry as she attempted to crash her blades down on top of him again. Tao let out an irritated tch sound and glided to the side much like water to avoid the the attack she threw at him, and in a blur of speed, he appeared behind her and managed to shove his sword through her chest, which caused her to let out a rasping cough. However, when Ameyuri collapsed into a puddle of water, Tao narrowed his eyes as he realized that she used the **Kawarimi no Jutsu** to swap out in time with a **Mizu Bunshin**.

He didn't admit it out loud, but Ameyuri so far had been the strongest opponent so far. Even against Ninjas, Tao had rarely come across an opponent so fierce. He hadn't noticed any **Mizu Bunshin** because his focus was entirely on the S-Ranked Nuke-Nin. Thankfully, it seemed that she had felt that keeping her **Mizu Bunshin** so close to Tao wasn't a good idea, and seemed to be keeping however many she had left out of range. Waiting patiently, and ignoring the bleeding come from the wounds he had received at her so far, his nostrils flared when he picked up the scent of Ameyuri behind him. Spinning quickly, he kicked her away and slashed at her with his bone sword, causing her to receive a deep cut that went down diagonally from her right should down to her left hip. So, that made it her two wounds to his four, then.

In a flash, she vanished back into the mist, this time coming to the side of him. Darting backwards quickly to avoid the downward slice, he hit her in the chin with a high kick and then spun kicked her hard into the nearby guard rail. Trying to capitalize while he had the chance, he flung a throwing knife that he aimed directly at her skull. There was another squelch-like sound effect, and he grit his teeth in irritation when he realized that it was yet another **Mizu Bunshin**. So, she was back to trying the **Silent Killing** Technique again, was she? This was just getting annoying for the underworld assassin, as this is the first time he had to ever really struggle. He was about fed up with this woman, and was prepared to unleash hell upon her, until he heard her speak up.

"Well, as much fun as this has been, my tasty meal, I've grown just a tad weary of this, and so it's time to goodbye to your earthly bonds. **Ikazuchi no Kiba**!" was what she had called out to Tao as she drew her swords together and summoning a lightning current and attempting to summon a lightning strike down upon Tao. Widening his eyes just a bit, he proceeded to dart across the bridge, barely avoiding the lightning strikes that she was summoning from the sky. Every time he avoided a lightning strike, he heard the echoing voice of the hidden Ameyuri, who seemed to be able to keep track of him as he was able to keep track of her. Deciding to get creative, he let out a scream as he gathered his energy into his hand, and managed to deflect one of the bolts right back at it's creator. Tao didn't get off scot-free, though, as his left hand became deeply burned by the attack.

The hidden Ameyuri was caught off-guard by the deflection, and was struck with such force by the bolt of lightning that she slammed forcefully into the crane of the bridge, sliding down with an echoing thud as her body smoked from the power of the lightning, Letting out a cough, she staggered back to her feet, only to find that Tao was already on the approach, sprinting at his incredible speed so he could cleave her in half at the hips. Widening her eyes, she quickly placed her Kiba blades into the air, and gathered her Chakra. " **Raito Jutsu: Rakurai**!" she called out, summoning a bolt of lightning down on to her right when Tao was so close to hitting her. The result was the bolt of Lightning Chakra summoned a powerful shockwave that slammed with incredible force into Tao, and sending him skipping and sliding down the bridge. Growing more and more enraged as the fight went on, he staggered back to his feet, and quickly gathered his Ki into his eyes.

"Choke on your own blood, you androgynous trash! **Soumasen**!" he shouted back at her, firing a pair of thin beams from his eyes at Ameyuri's lungs. The surprise maneuver only allowed her to ensure that she didn't take any fatal damage, though the beams did pierce through the right side of her collarbone and through her right bicep due to the way she dodged, causing her to feel searing pain. The two of them panted as they glared at each other, the fatigue starting to set in just a bit. Pitch-black, predatory black orbs met predatory sapphire blue orbs, a spark of intensity forming between their eyes. Neither giving an inch, daring the other to make the first move. Sooner or later, one of them had to break the stare and go on the move, or else they would be here forever. Tao was starting to feel the blood loss and the loss of feeling in parts of his body from the electrocution damage, and Ameyuri was also losing quite a bit of blood.

"You are the toughest meal I've ever hard to work for, Tao. You've put up an admirable fight so far, it's been a long time since I've fought someone who could stand up to me. Such a shame you're going to die here and now with that bridge builder, as I'd actually like to face you again. Such a shame that your path ends here! **Raiton: Sandageto**!" she said as she used the strength necessary to stab her swords into the metal bridge, then fired twin bolts of lightning into the sky. Before Tao could react, a powerful bolt of lightning struck the ground and sent out a massive shock-wave that Tao only barely had time to bring up his arms and defend against the attack, forming a protective shell of energy around himself. There was a flash of white, and he was then consumed by the powerful Technique, slamming forcefully into Tazuna and protecting him from the blast.

As Ameyuri panted, she waited for the blast zone to clear, and when everything cleared up, she saw Mercenary Tao slowly stagger back to his feet. He had seen better days, with his striking outfit having been destroyed and leaving him clad only in his undergarments and shoes. Quite a bit of his body had been burned, the mustache on his lip singed off, and his beautiful hair had been burned off. Slowly standing up, Tao slowly uncrossed his arms, and snarled at her, very thankful that his sword was still fine. The redheaded swordswoman, when she saw this, widened her eyes when she saw that he had managed to survive one of her strongest attacks, a thick coat of sweat rolling down her and her panting increasing. Gritting his teeth as he snarled at her, Tao proceeded to smirk evilly at her, and shakily formed his hands into the triangle formation.

"You whore, you ruined my outfit, and it was custom-made! Enjoy the Afterlife, **Kikoho**!" he shouted out, forming a super powerful square-shaped wave of energy that flew at the strongest member of the Shinobigatana Nonaninshu, with such speed that she only had time to form a Lightning-based Barrier around her body to shield her from the blast. As the explosion sounded off, and the smoke cleared, Ameyuri was stuck in a similar position as Mercenary Tao was. The both of them were on their last legs, and they both fell to one knee. Yet, even though that they were nearly spent on energy, they still had enough in them to glare menacingly at each other. Slowly, ever so slowly, they staggered back to their feet, and they were about to launch themselves at each other for one final attack, before they noticed the mist that Ameyuri had summoned up had dissipated.

"Well well well, look at we have here, boys. It seems we have ourselves some bones to pick dry" a snide voice commented on the situation, which caused the two S-Ranked opponents to stiffen up and look around them. What they saw made them grit their teeth, because on one side of the bridge, they had Gato and his gang of thugs, while on the other side, they had an entire Kirigakure ANBU Team. Looking each other in the eye, they came to a silent understanding, and pressed their backs together, an action that caused Ameyuri to hiss in pain due to the deep gouge in her back.

"What's the meaning of this, Gato?!" Ameyuri asked with her shark-like teeth as she pulled her swords out of the ground, which caused Gato to laugh in amusement.

"I had contacted the Mizukage about your location here in Nami no Kuni so I could sell you out to him and collect the bounty on both yourself and your little group of minions, and so Yagura had decided to send a full of ANBU, under the promise that I allow Kirigakure ANBU to be stationed here and fund his village. However, I had chosen to have both my men and the Kirigakure ANBU stand back and wait until the time is right, which was when either one of you died and the other was left weakened, or when both of you were too weak to put up a fight. Now, I get to get rid of both the man after my head, and collect your bounty as well" he said in reply, which caused the redheaded former Kirigakure Kunoichi to widen her eyes. As the two fighters examined their opponents, Ameyuri proceeded to speak up to the man that had previously been her opponent.

"I think I have enough Chakra left for one more Jutsu in me. How about you, meal?" she asked Mercenary in between each pant she made, which caused Tao to narrow his eyes.

"Grab a hold of me, and when I say now, you use your strongest attack, do you understand?" Tao asked her quietly with narrowed eyes, which caused Ameyuri to grunt out the affirmative, and turned to wrap her arms around his neck. Deciding that his life was more important than protecting Tazuna, he took a deep breath, gathered his Ki, and flew up into the air to position himself in front of the sun. After sheathing his sword, he placed his hands in front of his face. " **SOLAR FLARE**!" he shouted, as he closed his eyes, causing the sun to brighten up to inhuman levels, stunning and blinding the thugs, Gato, and the assembled Kirigakure ANBU team.

Tao then quickly slammed back into the ground, and gave Ameyuri the signal, which caused her to pierce the ground with her Kiba blades once more, and used her **Raiton: Sandageto** jutsu again, packing as much power as she could get away without killing herself from Chakra Exhaustion, resulting in everyone, including Tazuna, to be utterly obliterated by the attack. Once the smoke has cleared, everyone on the bridge had been vaporized, but Tao and Ameyuri were nowhere to be seen, the Kiba blades she wielded having vanished along with them.

* * *

 **A/N:** **AND BOOM! Chapter done, and left on a bit of a cliff hanger! I hope everyone enjoyed this fight, because I really did my best to make it as even as I could.** **  
**


	5. An Alliance, and a Secret Mission

**A/N:** **Hello all, RivalsToLovers here once more, and here is the next Chapter of Mercenary Tao. I hope you've all been waiting eagerly. I have a bit of a confession to make, I've gone both yesterday and today without a full night sleep, and I still managed to pump these posts out, so I'm really proud of myself. I would have written this Chapter yesterday, but due to how early I took this Medicine I've been prescribed, I was too energetic when it wore off, I had to keep getting out of my chair and pacing around, so that's why this Chapter came out today instead of yesterday. That being said, I hope you all enjoy the newest Chapter, and now it's time to read through the Reviews.**

 **thewhitedragon1993 \- Thank you so much, WhiteDragon. :D I did my best to keep the fight even and long, while keeping it entertaining. Of course, I still feel that I didn't use enough Techniques/Jutsus in the fight, so I will seek to remedy that and improve on fights like that in the future. Tazuna being dead, I chose to that, because in the Manga and Anime, Tao seemed to show some regard for his life, and I played off of that by having him view his life as a tad bit more important than money, so he'd rather risk losing out on a paycheck so long as he's killed those that threatened his life. As for those Techniques listed, he might, you'll just have to wait and see ;)  
**

 **chivotenkai** **\- I don't have any plans on him doing so. I had an idea for some kind of DB/Z-based Power Up in the event I get to the whole Kaguya Ootsutsuki thing, but unless I do get to that, I don't think I'll be having him use any Power Up Techniques. As to whether or not he'll be collecting money from the Daimyo, we'll see. I have planned on Tao failing some missions every now and then, as I don't want to give him a perfect mission record, since a perfect anything isn't really possible.**

 **Super Saiyan God Gogeta \- Well, considering he's pretty much Mercenary Tao, I wanted to go with the look. If you're going to have a character in something, why wouldn't you go about having that character's likeness? If Naruto didn't have anything but the personality and Techniques of Mercenary Tao, but not some of the appearance, he wouldn't be Mercenary Tao, just a guy with the Techniques, personality, and name. One of the most famous aspects of Tao is how he looks, not just what he can do or how he acts. That's just how I feel, anyway. You don't have to agree with me, but that's just how I feel.**

 **LordGhostStalker \- That is the plan for the Pairing, actually. Ameyuri and Naruto. Someone who read the Story, who's name I listed in the 2nd Chapter, I believe, sent me a PM about her, and after looking her up, and coming up with a background for her defection, I figured she would be the most fitting out of all of the females.**

 **SinOfDisaster \- I thank you for the compliment, since I went into this story with the intent to try and keep the DB-Era levels of power to fit in the Naruto Universe, since I didn't want Tao to mindless stomp every single person he fought. While Tao/Naruto may be the main protagonist in the story, and have the abilities of Tao, I still think that he should struggle, because fight after fight where it's obvious the main character will win every time is no fun. As for the Kiba blades, that's only one part of the abilities of the Kiba Blades. The Kiba Blades are also said to be sharpest swords in existence, and much like the Kusanagi, it is said they can cut through almost anything, barring special exceptions, of course. One does not need something like Fuuton Chakra to enhance it's lethality, because it's natural sharpness ensures that it's as lethal as can be. As for the Kakuzu meeting Tao thing, I did plan on that happening one day, as I'm going to have a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you and everyone else enjoy reading it as much as I will writing it. :3  
**

"Talking"

 _'Mental Speech'_

 _*Thinking*_

 **"Bijuu/Inner Personality/Cursed Seal Talking"**

 _ **'Bijuu/Inner Personality Mental Speech'**_

 _ ***Bijuu/Inner Personality Thinking***_

 **Jutsu/Technique Names  
**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: An Alliance, and a Secret Mission  
**

There was a small house in Kawa no Kuni, a lone figure resting in a bed. The pest was peaceful, until the figure's eyes shot open, and the man known as Mercenary Tao sat straight up in bed when the sound of an alarm clock sounded in his ears. Turning off the clock, he got out of his bed, and noticed that the wounds and burns he had on his body had been healed. Looking down at himself with an eyebrow, he walked over to a mirror, and ran a hand through his hair. He frowned when he noticed that it didn't seem burned at all, and in fact seemed as good as new. Wondering what was going on, he looked down at the clothes on the desk in front of the mirror that even had a note sitting on top of it. It read as follows:

 _Dear Tao,_

 _You and that Shinobigatana girl were awfully injured when I found you both collapsed on the ground, and unconscious. While she was a synch to heal up, you were much more difficult to heal, since your lack of Chakra means I wasn't able to heal up the Shinobi way. Thankfully, since I became your personal physician, I had learned numerous tricks with non-Chakra-based Surgery and such to heal you up right quick. I even managed to shave your burnt hair off and got it to regrow good as new, and I even braided your hair into that ponytail-style you like so much. Of course, the areas on your upper lip where the facial grew were so hideously that, even though I healed them up well enough for there to be no legitimate health issues, you are now unable to grow hair in that area. That Ameyuri girl said she would wait for you to wake up, as she appeared to have something to say to you. There's also a scroll with the seal of the Kaze no Kuni Daimyo on it that appeared to be for you. It's underneath the clothes._

 _Signed,_

 _Iryohime_

 _PS: I made you a brand new outfit that's an exact replica of the one that you lost._

Tao smirked at the message and proceeded to set it alight to prevent anyone from getting a hold of it. After stamping the embers out, he proceeded to slip his clothes on, making sure to strap his sword to his back. He didn't even bother testing to see if the measurements were right, as his personal physician had long ago memorized the measurements of his body to be able to make perfectly fitting replicas of his outfit. Once that was done, he proceeded to look down at the scroll that apparently belonged to the Kaze no Kuni Daimyo, and narrowed his eyes when he saw the official seal belonging to said Daimyo keeping the scroll sealed. Deciding to take a look and see what was up, he removed the seal on the scroll, and opened up to look at the contents. The scroll read:

 _Dear Mercenary Tao,_

 _I have heard through several reliable sources about your impressive mission record, your strength, and your loyalty to your employers. I have a mission for you that is of a very sensitive nature, one that can't be explained in this Scroll due to fear of the message being discovered and the mission I have for you being discovered. I ask you to make your way to home with great haste, as soon as you are able to come. Suffice to say, it is something that I don't trust anyone in my court to handle, due to the fact I don't want anyone to know I was involved in it. If you come, you will be well-paid, provided you are successful._

 _Signed,_

 _The Daimyo of Kaze no Kuni_

Mercenary Tao raised an eyebrow over the contents of the scroll, finding himself completely and utterly intrigued over this supposedly super secret mission. However, he was very suspicious, because this could very well likely be a trap, and he was going to make sure he was prepared for that possibility. Making sure to burn the scroll and the seal of the Kaze no Kuni Daimyo, he proceeded to stamp out the flames once more, and then exited the small house. Immediately, he was hit with that familiar scent of rainwater and apples, and he noticed that the scent was coming from above him. Instinctively, he quickly pulled out his bone sword, and blocked the descending strike of Ameyuri's electrified Kiba Blades. The two struggled for dominance for a moment, before Tao pushed her back and away from him.

However, rather than press the attack, Ameyuri merely grinned a toothy grin at him, and deactivated the electricity in her blades before sliding them back in their sheathes. Very wary of what she had planned, Tao quickly sheathed his blade, and stared at her with narrowed eyes as he folded his arms behind his back, adopting his usual pose as he continued to glare at her. The glare on his face just widened the grin of the swordswoman with the dark red hair, and for a moment, they just stood there in silence, before she broke the silence by speaking up.

"You're the first great fight I've had in a damned long time since I left Kirigakure, and I've grown curious of you. One day, I want to have a rematch with you, meal, and I'll make sure to bury you good and proper when the match is done" Ameyuri spoke up to him with that wide, sharp-toothed grin still on her face. Upon hearing this, the semi-known assassin scoffed at her in a dismissive manner, not thinking much of what she had said. While she had done a decent job of facing him in their last match, he was sure that had they not been interrupted, he would have obliterated and taken the blades, as well as the life, of a second Shinobigatana member.

"If you're so eager to die and join your little misfit Kirigakure trash minions in the Afterlife, than I'd be happy to grant your wish if you ever wind up being so foolish as to seek me out again. The only reason I haven't killed you now is because I have something more important to do. So I suggest you run along and go back to running from Yagura and his ANBU like a good little Nuke-Nin" he shot back at her before turning his back to her and walking up to a nearby tree, looking it up and down as he cupped his chin and started making calculations in his mind, trying to judge whether or not it would be good enough to use for his trip to Kaze no Kuni.

"There's that manly arrogance again, it's enough to make a girl weak in the knees. If you think you're going to get rid of me that easily, though, you're gravely mistaken" Ameyuri spoke back with a slightly wider grin than before. Really, the man was so lackadaisical, and attractively arrogant, oh-so-very deadly. She had certainly found an interesting one, and he was someone that clearly didn't even use Chakra. He appeared to be using some kind of energy, without a doubt, but she knew for a fact it wasn't Chakra. She had no idea who it was that trained him, but whoever they were, they did a damn good job of it. She had to give her props to whoever this mysterious trainer of his was.

"Oh really? I presume you're going to be following after me, then? Would you still be able to follow me if I were cut your legs off?" he asked her in an irritated fashion without bothering to turn around and face her, which had only caused her to chuckle in amusement. While most would be angry by the arrogance and the scornful dismissing they were being dealt at the hands of Tao, Ameyuri just found the arrogance, as well as the threats of violence and death, both amusing and attractive. The closest person she ever got to someone like Tao was Kisame Hoshigaki, but she would never compare Tao to that accursed fishman. One of them was a smooth, hired assassin, and the other was a bloodthirsty psychopath who betrayed Kirigakure out of his own selfishness.

"I'd like to see you try that, when I've already severed your head from your neck. You're not getting rid of me that easily, Tao, because I've taken an interest in you. When I get someone in my sights, I pursue them until I get what I want, and since you have the profession you do, I assume you'll be facing enemies that share a level of power with myself, and I would hate to lose out on the chance of getting my rematch and killing you because someone already beat me to the punch" the redheaded Mizu no Kuni born Nuke-Nin retorted back at him, which just made him snort in a derisive manner, but considering that she pretty much said she was going to follow him and prevent others from killing him so that she could have the chance to do so herself, he felt there was no need to end her life just yet.

After all, if she was going to go to the trouble of pursuing him to each end of the world he was in and ensure his survival just for a rematch, than she had her uses in his life, at least for now. That might change later on, but for now, he supposed there was no harm in letting her follow him. Judging by her personality, she wasn't the type to kill him while he was asleep, she wanted him to be wide awake, and at full power and health just for the pleasure of proving herself his better. That line of thinking reminded him perfect of himself, and for that, he had to admit, she had earned some of his respect. He certainly wouldn't let her know that, though.

"Hmph, well then, if you're going to ensure that I live just to have the pleasure of trying to kill me yourself, I suppose I should allow you to follow me. Just don't slow me down, or I'll enjoy ending your miserable little life" he replied back to her, once again not even bothering to face her as he proceed to kick the tree at the very base of it's trunk, which lead to a clean, precise cut all the way through the base of the tree. As the tree fell, Tao proceeded to catch the tree, and held it above his head.

"Says the one that seemed to be struggling to keep up with me in our fight. After all, I believe I cut you more times than I cut you" she retorted back as she traced her tongue over her lips, growing more intrigued by the man the more he let his arrogance show, and that little show of precision and strength he showcased by both making a clean cut through a tree, and then holding it above his head, was just too good for her to ignore. Noticing the adjustments he was making, as well as the intense focus, she tilted her head to the side in curiosity. "What are you doing?" she asked him in a curious tone of voice.

Without turning to her acknowledge her, he replied back. "Stand on this pillar and stick to it with your Chakra. The trip we're taking shouldn't take long, so you shouldn't take long" was all he said to her, which just made the redhead shrug and jump onto the tree, curious and eager to see what it was he was going to do. In a flash, he started muttering calculations under his head, and adjusting the way he was holding the tree trunk every so often. Eventually, he nodded his head, and spoke up to her once more.

"Try not to fall off, or else you might splatter all over the ground, weakling" he said in a mocking manner, before he proceeded to launch the pillar like a missile into the sky, jumping on it before it got too far away, and stood on top of it with his feet pressed tightly together, keeping his arms folded behind his back as he proceeded to surf the pillar. He was also ignoring the surprised shouts that Ameyuri made. The massive tree cruised through the sky at a high rate of speeds, and Ameyuri had actually clutched onto him from the shock of what was happening, which had caused Mercenary Tao to scowl in irritation, but he did not push her away as he figured the shock would pass.

Even over the course of the roaring winds, he could hear the heavy breathing of Ameyuri, feel her hot breath tickling his neck and spending sensations down his spine. Naturally, he ignored all of that and kept his eyes focused straight ahead, watching the scenery just fly by them. Eventually, just as he predicted, Ameyuri calmed down, and let go of him, though he could still hear her heavy breathing. Eventually, that breathing of hers calmed down down, and she eventually spoke up, the tone in her voice letting him know she wanted to know what the hell just happened.

"What the hell did you just do?!" she asked him in a baffled manner, which had caused Tao, who's back was still turned to her and had yet to look in her direction, to smirk in amusement. Ah, yet again, he manages to shock someone with one of his many abilities. It just further reinforced his superiority to those around him, and it never failed to stroke his ego a bit.

"I calculated the amount of strength I would need to pack into my throw judging by wind direction, wind speed, weight of what I held, the distance from here to the Kaze no Kuni Daimyo's Palace, and other such calculations I would need to figure out in order to throw this far enough to be able to surf it to my destination. This allows me to massively cut down the time I need to get somewhere. It may not be teleportation, but it's far faster than running the whole way. Any other questions, frightened little girl?" he explained to her in a snarky manner.

Ameyuri scowled at him in irritation for his calling her what he did. She wasn't frightened, or a little girl, either, she was just surprised by what he had done. The fact that he can make calculations that exact, and posses such strength, caught her off-guard, as she had never heard of such a thing. She had to admit to herself that she was impressed once again by what this blonde-haired assassin could do. It seemed that he was a man of many talents, and his method of getting around was both flashy and very much show-off-like, but it was also impressive and fast. She could probably move faster if she used the **Shunshin no Jutsu** , but that wasn't nearly as interesting as this tree surfing method of getting around.

"I wasn't scared, you pony-tailed asshole! I was just surprised by what you did, because I haven't seen such a thing before. I know I certainly can't do it" she said, grinding her sharp teeth together as she bitterly retorted back at him, which just caused him to scoff. Of course she couldn't do it, because it was no doubt to him that, although she was a smart and strong fighter, he doubted heavily that she could match his intellect in other areas. However, rather than voice his thoughts on the matter, he allowed the both of them to fall into silence, and Ameyuri had quickly forgotten about her anger, and just enjoyed the way they were traveling.

 **-Timeskip-**

In a flash, far sooner than Ameyuri expected, they had entered Kaze no Kuni, and the Daimyo's Palace was visible off in the horizon. She had been enjoying the sights pass them by, the wind in her face, her hair blowing in the wind, and everything. The **Shunshin** was more boring, if only because any half-way decent Ninja knew it, and while she would still prefer the **Shunshin** , she would get used to this method of traveling if she was going to be following Mercenary Tao around. She wasn't going to let him get away from him, not when there were plenty of opponents that could potentially kill him and thus deny her of a rematch.

"When I say so, cancel the flow of your Chakra in your feet and jump straight up" he said to her, which caused her to nod her head. When they reached the front gates of the Daimyo's Palace, Tao proceeded to stamp his feet on the tree and angled it downwards. Right before the tree slammed into the ground, Tao gave Ameyuri the signal, and they jumped up into the air. When the tree spiked itself into the ground, they landed feet first gracefully on the trunk of the tree, and they both observed the guards at the front gates staring at them with widened eyes and dropped jaws. Hesitantly, one of the Samurai pulled out his sword and pointed it at them, nervously looking at Ameyuri's slashed Kirigakure headband.

"Why have you come to our Daimyo's Palace?" the Samurai asked nervous. Tao proceeded to narrow his eyes at the Samurai, and turned to Ameyuri for a moment, telling her with his eyes to let him do the talking. Deciding that he knew what he was doing, the redhead nodded her head, and decided to stay quiet for now. Seeing that he got a confirmation from her, the mercenary turned back to the Samurai, and spoke up.

"My name is Mercenary Tao, and I received a letter from the Daimyo asking for my presence" was what the blonde-haired, ponytailed assassin had said to the Samurai, which had caused the guard's eyes to light up in recognition when he said who he was. Seeing the recognition in his eyes, Tao smirked in a pleased manner when he realized that the guards had already been informed of his arrival.

"Ah, yes, the Kaze no Kuni Daimyo told us to expect you, and who to look for. You may go in, but not you're companion" the Samurai said, pointing his blade at the S-Rank Kirigakure Nuke-Nin, which caused Tao to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"I promise you that she won't be an issue. If she causes trouble, I'll put her down myself" he said with a shrug of his shoulders, practically feeling the amused grin on the face of Ameyuri. He didn't need to see it, he could practically feel it on her face. The two Samurai looked at each other for a moment, holding a conversation between them that Tao and Ameyuri weren't privy to. Finally, after some deliberation, the two Samurai nodded their heads, and spoke up to let them know what their decision was.

"You may come in, and we will inform the Daimyo of your companion. Wait here" said one of the guards as the other entered the palace to tell the Daimyo that Tao arrived, albeit with an unusual companion in tow. The two S-Ranked warriors waited patiently for the messenger to come back, and luckily for them, that they didn't have to wait long. The Samurai came back, and with a bow of his head, he informed them that they were allowed to enter, which had caused Tao and Ameyuri to jump off of the pillar, landing feet first on the ground beneath them and entering the palace. One of the servants in attendance quickly lead them to the throne room, where the Daimyo was waiting.

Once they arrived, the two proceeded to bow their heads respectfully to the rather...large Daimyo, and they both honed in on the sight of two cloaked individuals in the room with them. They turned to the Daimyo that was sitting there, and waited for him to speak up. After all, it was polite for the Daimyo to speak up first before speaking to him. Though they both may considering themselves superior to the civilian ruler of the countries, that doesn't mean they were going to be foolish enough to earn their ire.

"Ah, I am pleased to see you at last, Mercenary Tao, and I see you've brought an S-Ranked Nuke-Nin with you. My guard has assured me that if she gets out of hand, you'll deal with her, so I see no issue in having her stay. Allow me to get right down to the chase. I have a mission for you that is in two parts. There are seven targets in total. One of my servants shall hand the information over to you now" said the Kaze no Kuni Daimyo as he clapped his hands together twice, which caused a servant standing by the throne to approach Tao and hand over some dossiers on his targets. Tao took them into his hands, and proceeded to look through the targets listed.

As he examined the dossiers, he noticed that all of them were Sunagakure Shinobi and Kunoichi of varying ages. Six out of the ten were Fuinjutser Masters, or apprentices to those Masters, and the last four were the Yondaime Kazekage's children and their Join Sensei! Tao's eyebrows lifted up into his hairline in surprise. One of them was even the legendary Chiyo, a prominent name from the Second Shinobi War. While it was clear that he would be paid triple the price he would never get for each kill he made, why would the Wind Daimyo want all of these people dead? Ameyuri, upon seeing his reaction, read through what he was reading, and she adopted a similar surprised expression herself. However, rather than saying anything, she opted to stay silent and let Tao do the talking, since this was his mission, after all.

"While I can easily wipe these cretins out completely with very little effort on my part, why do you desire me to kill them, Daimyo-Sama?" he asked him with a curious tilt of his head, which caused the Daimyo to nod his head in understanding, since he knew it was unusual for a Daimyo to want to wipe members of his own Shinobi Force.

"As you know, it's not exactly a secret that I've been cutting Sunagakure's funding and sending plenty missions meant for them over to Konohagakure instead. I've decided that having to deal with Sunagakure is just too much of a hassle, and I want to get rid of the village. Unfortunately, if I destroyed it with my own forces, so what I want to do is make it look like a complete accident" the Daimyo explained to Tao and Ameyuri, which caused the two to widen their eyes just a bit. They were both aware that this Daimyo had a reputation of being a stupid fool, but the fact that he actually wanted to wipe one arm of his entire military force just showed how utterly stupid he is. He seemed to have no idea just what kind of power vacuum this would create.

Ameyuri was about to speak up and inform the Daimyo of how foolish he was being, but Tao held his hand up in a stop signal over his shoulder for Ameyuri to see, and then proceeded to speak up the Daimyo.

"Let me guess, you want me to wipe out the Seal Masters and their apprentices, and then wipe out the team made up of the Yondaime Kazekage's children and their Sensei so that the Ichibi will reform in the desert, it will go on an unstoppable rampage that will lead to the destruction of Sunagakure no Sato, am I correct?" Tao asked the Daimyo, who proceeded to nod his head in confirmation, utterly impressed that the Assassin managed to figure out his plan. Ameyuri, who stayed silent for the most part, spoke up to ask the Daimyo about a small flaw in his plan.

"Daimyo-Sama, what happens if one of the other villages sends Seal Masters of their own to try and seal the Bijuu for themselves and prevent the destruction of Suna?" Ameyuri asked the utterly, and abysmally foolish Daimyo, who just smirked at her in an unconcerned manner, and spoke up to her.

"Let's just say I have contacts who will ensure they are unable to interfere. Only kill the Seal Masters and their apprentices, leave the Sensei and the children alive, as you should kill them when the Chunin Exams in Konohagakure comes around. I have information from the Kazekage about something that will happen there, and that will be the best time to kill them. So, will you take the job?" the Daimyo asked Tao, who proceeded to stroke his chin in thought. He didn't really care if completing the job caused a war or anything like that, because he could just profit from it, and if he did this, he would get a rather good bounty as well. He cared nothing for all of the innocent lives that would be lost, nor of the power vacuum that this would create. After thinking about it for a moment, he eventually nodded his head and bowed to the Daimyo.

"Consider this mission already complete, Daimyo-Sama. I assume you have a plan that will allow me to get access to the Seal Masters and their apprentices?" Mercenary Tao asked the Daimyo with a smirk on his face. Ameyuri was surprised that Tao would take the job, but if it gave her a chance to assist Tao in his mission, as well as a chance to cause a little bit of chaos. The mere thought of that caused her to smirk in excitement, and her blood was boiling with the thought of what she was going to get to do. Cracking her neck eagerly, she waited to hear what this plan was.

"I have another person that will be a part of this mission that works for a secret organization, and he happens to be an explosives expert. When the first explosion triggers inside of the village, that will let you know when to begin your attack. Once the last of the Sealing Team are dead, retreat and get away as fast you can. Do you understand, Mercenary Tao?" the Daimyo asked, which caused both of the S-Ranked fighters to nod their heads. Smirking in a pleased manner, the Daimyo dismissed them, and with a bow, the two turned their backs and proceeded to leave the palace. Unknowing to them, the very minute they turned their backs, the Kaze no Kuni's eyes went blank and momentarily flashed with the image of a three-tomoed Sharingan, before disappearing entirely.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Behold, the 5th Chapter in all of it's glory, my Followers, Favoriters, Reviewers, and Readers. I apologize if it seemed like there was a little too much talking. :( Like I said, I'm not exactly the best writer out there.** **  
**


	6. Beginning the Assault

**A/N:** **Hello all my lovely readers out there, RivalsToLovers here once more, and yes, here is the next chapter of Naruto: Mercenary Tao. First thing I need to do, is I need to let everyone one that this came out later than I expected it to, is because during the first part of this chapter, where Ameyuri and Tao were interacting together, I had to delete some of what I wrote and rewrite a section of it, because the original stuff I wrote made Tao seem a little childish, and it was over something that some random NPC had said. I was looking it over, and I really, REALLY didn't like it, so I felt I had to change to it. If you don't like how that section ended, trust me when I say that it's a much better alternative than what I had written originally. :3 That, and on top of that, I was looking through what I had written so far, and I felt that my stuff was a bit lacking, so I wanted to try and improve upon my writing so that it seemed more acceptable to me. That being said, if you all would like me to go back to previous manner of writing, I will do so. Now, to address some of my reviewers.  
**

 **CreedRazerReaper ****\- That's exactly it, you guessed it right. Congratulations :3  
**

 **SunglassesSkull -You're welcome. I felt that if he was overpowered, it wouldn't be entertaining. I mean, in Dragon Ball, I know that Tao was an absolute beast and all, but I felt that if I wanted the story to catch some interest, he couldn't be so powerful that he just utterly obliterate everyone he fought, otherwise the story wouldn't be entertaining to most.  
**

 **GoldTestament** **\- To be honest, I actually forgot about that when I had Ameyuri say that. My memory isn't the best, and as this is my first story, I haven't learned the habit of reading my previous chapters so I can ensure that there aren't any contradictions. I thank you for pointing this out, and I will do my best to try and improve as I go along. :3** **Tazuna probably didn't need to die, but to be honest, I was unable to figure out another way to end the fight. I kinda wrote myself into a corner with that one, and I apologize for that if it seemed a little off and/or upset you*sweatdrops*. I had another idea before the ending I had chosen to go with to end the Wave Arc, but that one was worse since the way it ended wouldn't make sense to get Ameyuri to start following him. The ending would have lead to her death at Tao's hands, since if he had someone in a position of defeat, he would always go in for the kill unless he is ordered to bring them in alive. As for the little flirting session that they had in their fight, I'm glad you liked it, because I had as much fun writing it as you enjoyed reading it, most definitely. In regards to the Wind Daimyo, that is absolutely correct, and part of the reason she's flirting with him so much is because she happens to appreciate fights of all kinds. Since they aren't crossing blades, she's riling him up with comments she makes and such, because she enjoys their little confrontations. That's how I imagine the two would flirt, doing verbal back-and-forths, though at this time, the two of them aren't aware that there is some minor spark between them, so their flirting is mostly unintentional. So, right now, Ameyuri believes she's doing it because she just likes having verbal bouts with Tao.  
**

 **Guest \- "** **Tobi is being a bad boy ... hahaha This will be a riot but think of all the poor innocent trees being destroyed ... hahahahahahahahaha (Looking at a monkey stabbing a camp fire).** **Oh well this story is extremely interesting almost got the the mercenary tao character down to a T. Although that amount of blood shed is exactly what the Akustiki or Red dawn plans." - Thank you for the compliment. :3 I RP on a DBZ Site that involves me playing an OC Daughter of Mercenary Tao, and as such, I did a lot of research on him and deduced how he would act. That's how I've managed to capture his persona as well as I have, because I needed to think up a reason as to why he would have a Daughter, considering he had Immortality, and have it make sense in a way that he would fit his character.  
**

 **Now that that is done, I'm going to see if I can make my next Chapter not so dialogue heavy.**

"Talking"

 _'Mental Speech'_

 _*Thinking*_

 **"Bijuu/Inner Personality/Cursed Seal Talking"**

 _ **'Bijuu/Inner Personality Mental Speech'**_

 _ ***Bijuu/Inner Personality Thinking***_

 **Jutsu/Technique Names  
**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Beginning the Assault  
**

As soon as Mercenary Tao and Ameyuri left the palace of the Daimyo, they noticed that it was close to sunset at this point. Before they could get far from the palace, they were stopped by the servant who handed Tao the dossiers earlier during the meeting with Kaze no Kuni Daimyo, who informed them that the attack would take place in just three days, and were told to go out of the city and go to a particular set of coordinates where the explosives expert would be waiting for them. The two Assassins nodded their heads in understanding, and Tao turned on his heel and walked into Kaze no Kuni's Capital. Ameyuri, upon seeing him leave, quickly followed after him, look at the sights with an excited grin. She had been in many places in her career as a Ninja, but she had never been in capital city of Kaze no Kuni. It was interesting, but it looked a little too much like Sunagakure for her taste, and the heat of the desert was still very much prominent. Having grown up in a much colder climate, the temperature was effecting her quite a fair bit.

Mercenary Tao, on the other hand, seemed remarkably nonplussed about the temperature. He moved with a purpose, forcefully pushing people out of his way every time someone got too close to him. Every single time he did this, the people around him would give him a scathing look for his rudeness, but they ultimately did nothing about it, since fighting in the city was against the law. He cared not a single bit who it was he pushed out of the way, or how forcefully he did it, because in his mind, he was above everyone around him right now. He thought they were utterly insignificant, and thus he felt they should make way for him. Besides, what were they gonna do about it, attack him? Should they do so, he would be more than happy to put them in their miserable sand rat places.

Ameyuri, upon seeing this, quirked her lips up in amusement. While most people would be turned off by the arrogance Tao was displaying, the redhead just found it utterly attractive. Mercenary Tao was a true man in her eyes, arrogant, good-looking, ruthless, violent, cold, powerful, skilled, bloodthirsty, and good with the threats. He was attractive without being a pretty boy, and while most would find the sneer that was usually on his face to be incredibly unappealing, but that just added a malicious seriousness to his face, something that she looked. He was just so composed, haughty, and unlike those annoying hotshot, cocky Genin, he had the skill and the power to back it up. Plus, the fact that he wasn't actually a Ninja, and yet possessed such power, added a uniqueness to him that just so very appealing.

However, there was just something about him that seemed so familiar, as if he had seen his face somewhere before. This was the first time she had met him, she would remember him if she had, but rather there was something about his appearance that so familiar. Unable to resist, she squinted her coal black eyes as she examined him to the best of her ability, trying to figure out where she had seen his face before. The sun-kissed blonde hair, the sapphire blue eyes, she knew for a fact that she had seen those specific features before. Eventually, she shrugged and decided that she would figure it out later, as she noticed Tao move his head to the side just enough for her to see that he turned his eyesight to her, though he kept his body facing forward.

"Is there any particular reason you're staring at me, woman?" he asked her in an irritated manner, which just caused Ameyuri to grin at him in amusement. She liked that she was capable of getting under his skin, as it meant that she had some manner of effect on him. She had a feeling that if it were someone else, it wouldn't effect him that much. Even if he found her annoying, he was just going to have put up with it, and besides, it was his fault for allowing her to stick by him and follow him in the first place. So, if he found her annoying, he had no one else but himself to blame, anyway. As soon as Tao saw the grin, his eyes narrowed a bit in irritation, which just visibly increased her amusement over the situation.

"Maybe I'm contemplating on stabbing you in the back with my Kiba blade and electrocuting your insides, Tao, or maybe I'm just taking in the cute little phrase you have on the back of your outfit" she said in a snarky manner, shooting him a challenging him. Tao's left eyebrow twitched as his irritation increased just a bit. This woman had an ability to push his buttons in a way very few others had the ability to. He could kill her if he wanted to get rid of her, but she was useful to have around, since she wanted to make sure that no one managed to kill him. That was the only reason he had chosen to leave her alive, because if it wasn't for that, she would be dead and sealed up in a scroll, ready to cash in her bounty.

He could tell that he was going to have to learn some patience if he was going to have put up with her for however long she decided she was going to be sticking with him for. A small, infinitesimally small, part of him actually enjoyed the banter, if he was honest with himself, but he just found her annoying for the most part. Don't get him wrong, she was going to be very useful, but it almost wasn't worth having her around if she wished to put his buttons like she was doing. Pulling one of the arms he had folded behind his back up to his face, he pinched the bridge of his nose, and although it calmed him down just a tad bit, it wasn't enough to stop him from piping back with a quip of his own.

"I'm not surprised in the slightest that you would contemplate such a thing. After all, we both know you couldn't defeat me if you were to attack me in my line of sight. What I AM surprised by, though, is that you possess the ability to read what's on my back. Judging by your intelligence, I would have thought it was because your reading comprehension skills are as poor as a monkey's. It's not enough you look like one, you have to have the intelligence of one, too, just for the total package" he shot back at her before turning back to face where he was going. Ameyuri's lips quirked upwards just that ever bit wider. Oh, he was good, he was very good when it came to the trash-talk, that was for sure. Just one more good point about him, of that there was no doubt.

She was really enjoying herself with the pink-garbed mercenary, far more than she had enjoyed...well, anything, really. The man was not only an excellent fighter, he was just as good with the verbal spars, so this was a man who could not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk. Hell, he could even do both at the same time, she found that out in their fight. He was a man of many talents, it seems, but she wondered just how far those talents extended to. Unable to help herself, she let out an amused giggle over the thought she had, which caused Tao turn back to look at her with an annoyed glance for a moment, before he turned away once more.

The two continued on their path in silence, and it was at that moment that Ameyuri's stomach had decided to speak up and let her know that it was time to eat. Obtaining slight blush on her cheeks in embarrassment due to how...loud it sounded, she saw Tao stop in his tracks and turned to look at her. It was very apparent to the two of them that he knew that the sound came from her. His lips twitched upwards into an amused smirk, taking particular enjoyment out of her embarrassment, which caused her to glare harder at him. Now, it was his turn to laugh, chuckling a bit to himself before he turned back around, but not before speaking up to her.

"Pick out one of the places you wish to eat at, and make it fast before I decide to let you starve" he said to her as he turned his head way from her. Ameyuri quirked an eyebrow up in surprise, wondering where the sudden kindness came from. He was actually offering her to choose where they ate, huh? Considering how he had been acting so far, she had assumed that he wouldn't have bothered and just let her find her own food. The fact that he was actually offering to let her choose where they would eat just let her know that he didn't find her as annoying as he claimed to. Unable to help herself, she teased him by wrapping her arms around his torso and snuggling up against him, pressing her body up against his back.

"Aw, what a gentleman, Tao, and they said chivalry is dead" she teased with a chuckle as she separated from him. In response, he kept his face stone cold and rigid so that he gave nothing away, and responded back to her, his eyes narrowing at her. It seemed like he was about to do something particularly vicious to her, but what happened in reality was far from the case. Instead of reacting physically, he simply turned his nose up at her and turned back away from her. Really, the thought of Mercenary Tao being a gentleman was a laughable notion in his eyes, so much so he actually let out a scoff. However, he didn't say anything in response, preferring that he just get on with things.

He didn't care that she was hungry, not in the sense that he cared for her well being, at least. Rather, he was doing it because he would have to listen to that stomach of hers growl and growl and growl, and he wouldn't be able to not hear it because of his enhanced senses. He loved those incredible senses of his dearly, but they could sometimes be a pain, a huge pain, and this was one of those moments. There were just some things that you couldn't block out of your head, no matter how much you might really want to. Having to listen to the stomach of his annoying tagger on growl over and over again would just drive him crazy, so he'd rather get it taken care of now.

He cared nothing for her wellbeing in the slightest, no matter how much that small spark inside of him enjoyed that closeness of their forms pressed together. He just wanted her to be in tip-top notch to better prove herself useful to him and have her act as a potential shield against those that might put him in the position of being killed. Though he personally believed that such a thing wouldn't happen, it was always nice to be prepared just in the even that he actually got himself put into such a position. After all, it is always better to have something and not need it, than to need it and not have it. His thoughts were then immediately broken by Ameyuri sprinting past him and heading towards a small stand that made rice balls. Judging by the expression on her face, it was clear that she loved riceballs.

Huh, go figure. He had gotten the impression that she would have chosen something other than something as simple as rice balls. Well, at the very least it was good to know that she didn't have expensive tastes when it came to food. He would have hated to spend money on ridiculously expensive foods and the like. Considering what he had learned of her so far, he would have figured she would have gone for something super expensive just to annoy him. Thankfully, it seemed he had pegged her just a tad bit wrongly. So, she was only slightly less annoying than he had originally thought her to be. After staring for a moment, he walked up to the stand, and watched as Ameyuri eagerly dug into the rice balls she ordered with extreme gusto.

The old lady at the stands was a little unnerved by the two people at her stand, the redhead with her shark-like teeth, and the blonde with the symbol of the word Kill on the front of his outfit, but she seemed to be finding amusement in the energetic way that the redheaded one ate her riceballs with gusto. It was clear by the way the blonde-haired young man walked up to them that he appeared to know the redhead, and she started looking between the two of them. Ameyuri was too busy eating her rice balls to notice, but Tao had most certainly taken notice of it, and he narrowed his eyes. He noticed the gears in the old lady's head turning, and he wasn't sure he liked what it was he might be thinking up.

However, before he could find out what it is that she was thinking up, his redheaded...companion, finished up her rice balls, and wiped her face off with a napkin. She looked at the prices of the rice balls, and once she saw the prices, she looked at a particularly irritable looking Tao. Why was he irritable, one might ask? It has to do with the fact that he could tell she wanted him to pay for her. Honestly, doesn't this woman have money of her own? Even if he had plenty of money to spare, and he did, it didn't mean he liked spending it when he didn't absolutely need to. This woman better start pulling her own weight one day, or he was going to put her heavily in debt.

Although he didn't say anything, he let out a grunt, and slid his wallet out of the inside pocket of his outfit, and pulled out however much he needed to pay. The old lady smiled, and proceeded to take the money from Tao, placing it in the small register. Once that was done, she proceeded to hand him his receipt, which he took with a scowl and slid it into his wallet, before placing the wallet back into the inside pocket. With that said and done, he folded his arms behind his back once more, and started walking away with Ameyuri at his side.

Once they walked away from the stand, Mercenary Tao lead the redheaded swordswoman to a Hotel Room, where he purchased a room to stay in for three days, seeing as the sun had gone down during her little eating feast. One of the many modifications to his body was that he could still keep himself healthy and fit with a lot less nutrients than that of other Humans. It may not have much use for Battle, but it made sure he didn't spend as much money, and allowed him to perform his tasks for longer periods at the time. As the two reached their room, they quickly changed into their nightclothes, and proceeded so slide into the bed. Naturally, both of them were unconcerned with the presence of each other in bed with them.

"Tao?" Ameyuri muttered into her pillow, but that didn't make it any harder for the mercenary to hear her. As he laid there with his eyes closed, he mentally debated with himself if he should even bother responding to her. His annoyance spiked up a bit, because he was under the impression she was going to try and start another argument with him, when they were both trying to rest. So, he really didn't want to answer her at the moment, but he steeled himself for whatever it was that she had to say. Once he had properly prepared himself for whatever it is she felt she had to say to him, he spoke up and responded to her.

"What is it?" he asked her in a quiet tone of voice, trying to get the mandatory few hours of sleep that he needed to keep himself in top physical condition. Plus, he needed to give his mind time to absorb the rather unusual manner he had been acting with her for those few hours before they entered their hotel room. He didn't want to waste any time he was resting by having another potentially irksome verbal sparring match with the redheaded former Kiri-Nin, but his curiosity over what it was that she had wanted to say had gotten the better of him, and so it was with a resigned sigh that he had actually replied to her, almost as if it was in defeat.

"Thanks for paying for me at the stand" she muttered, before she started to doze off, almost missing his response to her thanks, almost being the key words. Upon hearing what it was that she had to say, Tao, who was laying down and facing the opposite direction that Ameyuri was, widened his eyes. The fact that she was actually thanking him surprised him, because from their interactions so far, she seemed like she was just going to rile him up and not even bother showing any gratitude or anything when he did something that might benefit her or impress her at all. Well, he supposed that there were times when even he could be wrong.

"...You're welcome" he said in response to her thanks hesitantly, before the two of them allowed comfortable, content silence to encompass the room, their conversation now over. Eventually, the silence of the room, as well as the soothing sound of the air conditioning blowing through the room, allowed them to fully relax, and in a flash, they had allowed sleep to take them over. Before they even knew it, they had fallen into a blissful sleep, for however long they were going to sleep for, anyway.

 **-A Few Hours Later-**

When the mandatory few hours that he absolutely needed to get had passed him by, Mercenary Tao opened his eyes, and right as he started to move to get out of bed so he could go visit a bar and get himself a glass of the strongest alcohol that he could find, he immediately felt something wrapped around him. Narrowing his eyes, he turned to his side, to find that Ameyuri had moved in her sleep, wrapped her arms around him, and proceeded to snuggle and cuddle with him like he was a stuffed animal. While, initially, there was a part of him that enjoyed the closeness of their bodies, he forcibly killed that spark of feeling inside of him, and slowly managed to pry Ameyuri without waking her up.

Once he had managed to get her off of him, Tao slid out of the bed as quickly, and yet as quietly, as he could get away with it. As the ponytailed sword-for-hire started heading for the door, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Ameyuri had curled herself up against his pillow and was now wrapping her arms it around, snuggling and cuddling it like she had been doing with him. So she was just one of those affectionate sleepers that liked to snuggle with someone as they rested their body and mind. Knowing that there would be moments where he would have to put up with that, he sighed in an irritated fashion and pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment. He then quickly left the room after the door as quietly as he could and then closing it behind, again as quietly as he could, and then went off to find himself a bar to have a drink.

 **-Three Days Later-**

Three days had passed after that moment, and it was quite clear to the both of them that something had changed between them. There was something that had just sparked between them, and neither of them were aware of what it was. They still argued, that was for a fact, but Tao seemed just a tad bit less annoyed at Ameyuri's presence. She still started verbal sparring matches with him very often, if he were being honest, but he didn't find it nearly as annoying as he did before those private moments between each other. That didn't mean he stopped responding to her whenever she felt that she needed to cause an argument with him every moment she got. Neither of them were aware of the reason why they always so snippy with each other, as the both of them were still rather new to such a thing, but they would be lying if they didn't find it just a little entertaining.

Ready start the mission they had been assigned, they quickly sprinted out to the coordinates that they were given that their...partner would be ready to begin their assignment in Sunagakure. Mercenary Tao and Ameyuri had to admit, they were curious as to who this demolitions expert happened to be, and what organization they were a part of, if they actually managed to earn the eye of the Daimyo to such a point that the Daimyo himself felt that this person could be trusted with the whole 'plan to destroy Sunagakure' thing. Then again, there was always the possibility that this demolitions expert had no idea that the Daimyo was planning that, that was always a distinct possibility.

Whatever the case may be, it didn't matter to Tao. The only thing he cared about was taking pleasure in the many kills he would be dishing out, and then getting from the murders. He enjoyed the act of killing as much as he enjoyed getting paid for doing it, after all, that particular thought in his mind causing a dark smirk to appear on his face. Ameyuri took notice of the expression on his face, and detecting the bloodlust, she adopted a smirk of her own, and thought of all the carnage that would be spread from their actions. Sure, there was always the chance that this plan would result in another Great Shinobi War, she long ago stopped caring about wars between villages, when she had abandoned her own village because the Kirigakure Civil War.

As the two raced through the sand dunes, they soon came upon the sight of a large, brown bird of sorts, with a person sitting on it, who's face was obscured by the straw hat and high-collared black cloak with red cloud pattern on it. The two travelers raised their eyebrows at the odd sight, recognizing that this person must be the mysterious explosives expert that was going to be helping them out in this mission of theirs. Narrowing his eyes in thought, he attempted to analyze the little features of the shadowed figure, and the most he was able to get was that the man was a blonde of some kind, and that he could make out a slashed Iwagakure hitai-ate tied to his forehead. Other than that, he was unable to find out anything else about him.

However, he picked up something else about the blonde via his scent, and he could detect that, not only did this scent belong to a male, there was also the distinct smell of clay on him. _*Clay? Why does that sound familiar?*_ Mercenary Tao thought to himself with narrowed eyes, taking in the scent of the other blonde deeper into his nostrils, and that was when he detected the scent of smoke, most likely from fires that he was around. That only just caused more alarm bells to start ringing in his mind. There was this nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he knew who this explosives expert was, but for the life, he couldn't figure out. It was then that it clicked in his mind, slashed Iwagakure hitai-ate, clay, explosives expert, the scent of smoke. This man had to be none other than-

"So, who in the hell are you, if I may ask?" came the voice of Ameyuri, her curiosity getting the better of her as she examined the person's form top-to-bottom, and in then back up, and much like Tao, she took notice of the blonde hair and the slashed Iwagakure hitai-ate. Considering that Iwagakure, much like Kumogakure, had a tendency to vigorously hunt down their Nuke-Nin and murder them for their betrayals, this one particular Nuke-Nin would have to either be extremely powerful, or extremely good at covertly moving around. She assumed it had to be the first one, but chances are, an explosives expert isn't really all that sneaky. The only ones who were that she could think of were Ninja from the now destroyed Kagerougakure that used to exist in Yama no Kumi before it was now destroyed sometime during it's miniature war with Konohagakure.

The blonde-haired figure smirked underneath his cloak, and started chuckling. Those chuckles then turned into slightly mad, overjoyed cackling. So, they were finally here, huh? Finally, now he had a chance to introduce more uncultured fools to his ultimate form of art, and convert to his manner of thinking. Well, to be more accurate, they would be converted right in their last fleeting moments before they were vaporized from his beautiful art. When the S-Ranked Kirigakure Nuke-Nin asked who he was, he reached up to grab a hold of the rim of his straw hat, and very slowly pulled it off of his so he could reveal who he was to his two 'partners' for this mission.

Once the hat had been pulled off of the man's head, Mercenary Tao and Ameyuri had two entirely different reactions to who's face they saw. While their reactions were completely different, they were both still very shocked and surprised upon seeing none other than Deidara, the infamous Iwagakure Mad Bomber that held his village's prized Bakuton Kekkei Genkai. The fact that there was a second S-Ranked Nuke-Nin around, and one that was supposed to be more than a little crazy, due to his reputation of seeing his explosions as art, with the second S-Ranked Nuke-Nin being a member of some apparent secretive organization, meant that this plan of the Kaze no Kuni's Daimyo was just a tad bit bigger than they had anticipated.

Mercenary Tao, upon seeing who it was, grimaced when he realize that his train of thought was correct. Great, just great, he had found another S-Ranked Nuke-Nin, and due to this mission he was going on, he couldn't just kill the former Iwa-Nin and collect his bounty. On top of that, the fact that this man was not only a former Iwa-Nin, but also used to be Ryotenbin no Onoki's most highly favored Ninja, meant that there was a very real chance that when Deidara took the time to really analyze the blonde mercenary's appearance. If he did, it wouldn't be long until the man came to the conclusion that Tao was related to the Yondaime Hokage, a person that Iwagakure regarded as being a Demon hiding under the guise of a human.

Ameyuri, on the other hand, widened her eyes a bit in shock and amazement, her mouth dropping open just the smallest bit as she titled her head to the side. There had to be some kind of joke going on here, some prank being played on her. Who in the hell would recruit Deidara into a secret organization? While she could say with certainty that Deidra was worthy of his S-Ranked Nuke-Nin status, he was both unstable and completely nuts, and she was wondering what organization in their right mind would actually consider the Bakuton wielder worthy of joining their ranks. What kind of an organization was it, an organization filled with nutcases just like him, a gathering of psychos?

Deidara, upon seeing their expressions, allowed a few chuckles to escape his lips, before he then turned serious on them. He had originally been apprehensive about the Akatsuki Uniform when it came to traveling, because he happened to enjoy the reactions he got when people saw who he was right away. However, he had actually grown to enjoy the reactions people had when he revealed his identity to those around him, as it added onto the fear someone would express when they saw it was him. The fact that these two were his allies didn't change the fact that the reactions were still humorous to him. After he got his chuckling out of the way, he nodded his head and turned serious.

"Alright, hop onto the bird, and we'll begin our attack now, Un. We're about to show those uncultured losers of Sunagakure that the truest form of art is fleeting, to be viewed for only a second in a magnificent spectacle, and then have everything disappear in one giant, glorious boom!" he said to them with a manic, excited grin on his face, which had caused Tao to grimace in an irritated manner over having to put with a crazy Iwa-Nin, while Ameyuri had just chuckled in amusement over the crazy terrorist's exuberance, but they both did as Deidara had said, and jumped onto the clay bird. When they had done so, Deidara nodded his head, and made the clay bird take off.

The three powerhouses glided through the air, heading to Sunagakure at a speed that Tao was actually somewhat impressed by. He would have preferred cruising on a pillar, or a tree, or some other column-like object, but that was just him. Besides, by sticking with Deidara, the two partners would be able to enter the village easier while the blonde Nuke-Nin was busy bombing it from above. Besides, this also helped them as far as the assassination attempts went for a number of reasons. The first being that, according to the folder of information Tao had been given that the team made up of the Kazekage's children had bent out on a B-Ranked Mission on the day they had arrived, and weren't expected to be back for another two days.

The second reason was that, according to Sunagakure protocol, when the village was in danger, the Fuinjutsu Masters and their apprentices were placed in an underground bunker that they knew the entrance to that lead far outside of Sunagakure that they would be let in to with the help of sleeper agent that the files Tao had been handed that said the organization Deidara was a part of had, and weren't supposed to come out unless they were absolutely needed. Since they had special Fuinjutsu placed on the clothes of the Fuinjutsu Team, they would instantly be **Reverse Summoned** to that bunker the very minute the attack started. That would be something that would be very useful, though Ameyuri would be just a tad bit limited due to the location being underground, which meant that she would be incapable of using most of her Kiba Blades-based Jutsus, though that wasn't really much of a loss as Ameyuri was still exceptionally deadly without them, and Tao would be very limited in terms of he could use as far as Techniques could. After all, if he used his more destructive techniques, he could very well wind up collapsing the bunker down upon them and kill everyone, including himself and Ameyuri. Though, this was a two-way street, as it also meant the Fuinjutsu Team would be limited in what they would be able to use against them as well.

The most important thing, is that the Kazekage Rasa would be too busy trying to take out Deidara to be able to come to the rescue of the Fuinjutsu Team. While Mercenary Tao and Ameyuri were sure they could take out the Kazekage if he had actually come to help the Fuinjutsu Team, killing him would earn them even more infamy than killing off Sunagakure's entire Fuinjutsu Team. With these things in mind, Tao waited calmly for the trip to be over so that they could begin their plan of attack. The redheaded swordswoman was in the same boat, laying back against the bird with her hands behind her head, crossing one leg over the other and swinging it a bit while they both waited for Deidara's signal to let them know when it was time for the attack to begin.

Thankfully, they wouldn't have to wait long, because it only took another 30 minutes before the image of Sunagakure came into sight. Deidara grinned when he saw the village come into sight, and proceeded to turn to the two behind him to let them know that it was nearly time for them to begin their mission. As he did so, he made sure to prepare some of his beautiful clay sculptures in his hands, and when he figured he had enough to deal enough damage to draw Rasa out, he spoke up to let the two traveling with him the situation.

"Alright you two, Un, the show is about to begin. Try not to be vaporized by my glorious masterpieces, lest you go down in everyone's memory for the rest of your existence as they revel in the beauty of your demise" he said in an excited tone of voice, which caused Ameyuri and Tao to stand up. Right when the clay bird flew over the village, Deidara proceeded to unleash his clay masterpieces, and grinned excitedly when he formed the hand seal necessary to detonate them, causing his canvases to become splattered with glorious painted that resulted in an explosive creation of several masterpieces. Explosions rang throughout the village, and with that, chaos ensued. Mercenary Tao and Ameyuri took advantage of the chaos and jumped off the clay bird, and landed on the main street of Sunagakure. Using their incredible speed, they quickly headed to the entrance of the underground bunker where the Fuinjutsu Team should be while Deidara proceeded to unleash chaos in the only way he knew how, through the beauty that was that of explosions!

 **-In The Bunker-**

The three young sealing apprentices cried in fear as they hugged their Masters, Chiyo, Ebizo, and Pakura of the Shakuton, protectively around their waists fearfully. The three veteran Ninja narrowed their eyes as they attempted to calm down their hysterical apprentices. They were surprised by the sudden attack on their village, as no one in the village had foreseen any kind of attack. They couldn't fathom a reason as to why they were being attacked, nothing of what they knew about the village relations with any of the other villages or any of the countries would allow them to explain whoever was responsible for such an out-of-nowhere attack.

"Don't worry, Saiyo-Chan, everything will be fine. Kazekage-Sama will deal with the attack with no issue" Pakura, who had studied for years under Chiyo as a former Fuinjutsu Apprentice herself, said to the female apprentice that that was clutching to her fearfully. However, everyone in the bunker soon stiffened up when they heard a sinister chuckle echo throughout their location, which caused them to instantly go on guard. The three veteran ninja pulled their apprentices behind them as if to shield them from an attacker, and looked at the door to the bunker that opened up, two people entering through it and slamming it behind. The first one, the blonde-haired man in the pink outfit with the sinister symbol on the front of it they didn't know, but they all widened their eyes when they recognized the redheaded woman with the twin swords strapped to her sides.

"You should worry less about your pathetic village, and worry more about the two of us" said the blonde-haired 17 year old, the person that was clearly responsible for the sinister laugh that they had all heard. Chiyo, as the designated leader of the Fuinjutsu Team, stepped forward and met the blonde's deathly cold blue eyes with her own eyes, glaring into his sapphire orbs with a challenging, furious gaze. She knew right away that these two were in league with the mysterious bomber that was attacking their village.

"Who are you, how did you get down here, and why are you here?" Chiyo asked him with a furious hiss, to which Mercenary Tao smirked, and cracked his neck as he pulled out his sword, Ameyuri following suit by pulling out her Kiba blades and charging them up with her Chakra to summon the electricity around them.

"In that particular order, your executioner, none of your business, and for the answer to your third question, refer to my first answer" he said in a snarky manner. Chiyo, in response, quickly unraveled her carrying scroll, and summoned her Chikamatsu Puppets. " **Shirohigi: Jikki Chikamatsu no Shu** " she called out as she attached the Chakra Strings to her puppets and made them come to life. She knew that just by the mere presence of Ameyuri, that these two were going to require all of her effort if she wanted to even have a chance of ensuring Sunagakure's prized Fuinjutsu Team survived this encounter, Ebizo and Pakura preparing to assist her with the Battle. In a flash, Ameyuri and Mercenary Tao lunged at him, and just like that, the battle was on.

 **-Meanwhile, With Deidara-**

The former Iwa-Nin cackled with delight as he continued to drop his beautiful works of down on the brutish Sunagakure Ninja and unleashed his wondrous, explosive art down upon them. He was having the time of his life, as it had been a long while since he had gotten to cut like this, though he had made sure to try and conserve as much Chakra as he possibly could, as well as his best explosives, for when the Kazekage had decided to make his appearance known. Luckily for Deidara, he wouldn't have to wait long, as in a flash, his ears had caught wind of a powerful Jutsu being called out that was clearly being aimed at him.

" **Doton: Dosekiryu**!" called out a voice as a large, menacing Dragon made up from the ground formed and proceeded to snake and lunge at Deidara, who quickly proceeded to angle his clay bird away so that it wasn't destroyed. Upon looking in the direction of where the Jutsu had come from, he grinned in a joyous manner when he saw none other than a furious Yondaime Kazekage glaring at him.

"I don't know why you've decided to attack Sunagakure, Deidara no Bakuton, but I can assure you that doing so will lead to your death. Iwagakure may not be doing anything about you, but I certainly will ensure your head is returned to your home village so I can collect your bounty" Rasa hissed at Deidara, which just caused the Bakuton user to smirk mockingly at the Yondaime Kazekage, and made a hand motion indicating for the redhead to bring it on.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Behold all of you, the newest chapter of my FanFic, and I did my absolute best to try and improve my writing. Maybe I failed, maybe I succeeded, I'll find out depending on what your reactions are to what I've written in this chapter. I just felt I may have been rushing the Chapters out just a bit, and decided to try and see if I could extend the chapters a bit, add more detail here and there, clean things up a bit, and make things look just a bit more professional. I hope you all don't mind this change. If you happen to like this sudden change, I'm gonna do my best to emulate this kind of detail for the rest of the Chapters I do from now on. :3** **  
**


	7. Mercenary Tao VS Chiyo

**A/N:** **Hello all my lovely readers out there, RivalsToLovers is back here once more, and this time, with, hopefully, my greatest chapter yet. I'm sorry that I seemed to have gone inactive for a while, I was thinking some things over and trying to expand on the stories so far that it's not constantly showing Ameyuri and Tao, get other characters included into the story more. That, and I've been feeling a bit of writer's block. Now, time to address some reviews.  
**

 **FlameFox1 ****\- Thank you very much for the positive feedback, man, I deeply appreciate it. I hope I continue to impress you, and everyone else. :3 One of the main reasons I had chosen Ameyuri, besides her Personality and strength, was because of the fact that she has long flowing red hair like Kushina, and I thought it would be kinda interesting for the two of them to pair up. I thought it would be a tad bit ironic if he was like Minato and had a taste for redheads.  
**

 **plums \- There is a reason I included Pakura in the list of people to kill for Tao. I didn't just add her in for the sake of adding in a body count, and while that may seem like it is the case, there is a reason I am doing this. She isn't dead yet, so just relax, and just wait and see what it is that I plan to do.  
**

 **Guest \- "** **Are you going to at least show a flashback how Naruto became the way he is? Will Naruto kill Jiraiya and his family. Does Naruto at at least care for Tsunade. After all you wrote her as the only one actually caring for him." - I won't answer most of what you asked, because I feel that would be spoiling the stuff I have saved up for the future. However, for your first question, the answer is yes, I will be delivering flashbacks to show how Naruto became the way he is. Those will come in the future, don't you worry about that. My only issue with showing them, is trying to figure out how much I should reveal at a time, and at what moments I should reveal them. :3**

 **thewhitedragon1993 \- LOL Yes, it would be utterly hilarious if I did that, no doubt. Whether or not that happens, though, you'll just have to wait and see.**

 **With all of that said and done, let me see if I can create another good three fights. I think you might be surprised by how one of the fights goes down. :3  
**

"Talking"

 _'Mental Speech'_

 _*Thinking*_

 **"Bijuu/Inner Personality/Cursed Seal Talking"**

 _ **'Bijuu/Inner Personality Mental Speech'**_

 _ ***Bijuu/Inner Personality Thinking***_

 **Jutsu/Technique Names  
**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Mercenary Tao VS Chiyo  
**

"Would you care to run that by me again?" Minato Namikaze asked his Daughter in a baffled tone of voice, who was currently in front of his desk with her team. Minato, Kushina, and Jiraiya all looked at Team 7 in a shocked manner once they had been told of the details regarding their failed mission to Nami no Kuni. Every member of Team 7, except for Kakashi, shuffled their feet nervously and looked amongst each other. The guilt on their faces was obvious to everyone in the room that they didn't really feel particularly great about the path they chose to take by abandoning Tazuna to his fate. Sure, there was the fact that the client had lied and nearly got them into a situation they weren't prepared for. They had no idea just what they had been going into, and they were lucky they got out, but they still felt like they had condemned Nami no Kuni to death.

Kakashi, being the team leader, closed his Icha Icha with a sigh, and stepped forward to deliver his report. He was the team leader, after all, and believed that the guilt his students felt would effect their ability to give a proper report. While he understood the guilt they were feeling, he couldn't risk their lives by walking into a situation with unknown enemy Ninja. While they were quite well-trained, and stronger than most Rookie Genin that enter the Ninja Ranks, they were still only Genin. Up against at least 1 Jounin-level Nuke-Nin, and who knows who else had been working with Demon Brothers, he couldn't have continued the mission. While he was very confident in his own abilities, his students still weren't on the level necessary to risk going on an A-Ranked Mission. Besides, Kushina would have murdered him for going on such a dangerous mission with her Daughter.

"We escorted the VIP out of Hi no Kuni as was required of us, but along the way, we came along a puddle on the road that shouldn't have been there, and two Chuunin Kirigakure Nuke-Nin called the Demon Brothers emerged from it so as to try and ambush Tazuna-San. However, due to quick thinking at the hands of Sasuke and Mito, they were quickly dispatched via utilizing a Gokakyu/Daitoppa combination Jutsu, resulting in them being turned to ashes. Turns out he had lied about the mission details, and that Gato of Gato Kanpani had seized control of the country, and was bleeding it dry. When Tazuna-San and the people of Nami no Kuni had tried to build a bridge to the mainland, Gato sent assassins after his life. While I fully trusted in my own beliefs, I felt it unwise to continue the mission with my Genin Team, and luckily for me, they agreed with me" Kakashi said, going over the details of the mission with a critical gaze.

Minato sighed quietly to himself and rubbed his nose a bit. He had mixed feelings about the decision to just abandon Tazuna like they did. He understood that it was protocol for the Teams to abandon a Mission if the client had falsified the details of their mission request, but there was still the fact that by doing so, they were leaving a country in the hands of a tyrant who had enough money to hire multiple ninja to do his dirty work for him. He closed his eyes, and thought very deeply about what he should do. As much as he would like to just let Nami no Kuni stay in Gato's hands for Tazuna putting his daughter's life in danger, he knew that he couldn't just leave them to their fates. Everyone in Nami didn't deserve to suffer just because one of their countrymen had decided it was a wise idea to commit fraud against a Ninja Village.

An idea suddenly came to him, and he straightened up. He would send another team to Nami no Kuni to help with the liberation of Nami no Kuni, but he would entrust this mission with a team that was more than capable of handling the job. This mission would get upgraded to an A-Rank mission, potentially an S-Rank because of the unknown factor involving how many Nuke-Nin were involved, and what rank they were. With this in mind, he had decided to summon a team that he felt could truly get the job done, and considering which team it was, he was sure that they could handle any complications that might come up in the mission.

"ANBU Bat, summon me Yugao's ANBU Team, I have an emergency mission for them" Minato called out to one of the ANBU Guards hidden throughout the room. The ANBU in question bowed to the Yondaime, and disappeared in a Shunshin. As he waited for Yugao and her team to get here so he could send them out, he turned to watch the interaction between his Daughter and Kushina.

Kushina hugged Mito in a protective, motherly manner. Unlike Minato, she didn't care that Team 7's decision might have lead to the death of an entire country, she was just glad that her precious daughter was safe and sound, not a single hair on her head having been touched. Her only solace was that Tazuna was probably dead by now, because if he wasn't, she would have charged straight to Nami no Kuni and killed the drunken old codger herself for putting her daughter in danger when he had a chance to come clean about the true details of the mission. As far as she was concerned, he deserved everything Gato did to him. As long as her daughter was safe, she didn't care.

"I swear I'm not letting you out of my sight, any of you. You're some of my precious people, and I won't allow anyone to hurt you, Dattebane!" she said to Team 7 excitedly, hugging all three of the teenagers tightly. Sighing in relief, she proceeded to turn her attention to Kakashi and smiled at him. "You did the right thing, Kakashi. I'm glad you made the decision to come back instead of continuing on, because even if everyone had survived, I promise you that your name would have been on the KIA Stone" she said to him in a proud manner, her eyes flashing with anger. Kakashi, in response, gulped nervously and started sweating, only calming down when Kushina's pleasant demeanor came back.

Mito eagerly hugged her Mother back, deciding that she really needed some comfort right about now, what with the tears streaming down her face. It was bad enough that they had left Tazuna behind, even though they were obliged to do so due to the client lying about the mission details, but on top of that, she had wasted her first genuine opportunity to find any clues to Naruto's whereabouts because she had been forced to go back home. As much as she didn't want to go back, she knew that it was only protocol to go back should a client happen to be deceptive with mission details or try to betray their guards. She had to make that decision, as much as she didn't want to, so she had decided, against her feelings, to be logical and smart about it.

Sasuke felt a little uncomfortable in the embrace of the hyperactive redhead. While he was very grateful for her taking him in, and getting to hear so many stories about his Mother back when she was a Genin, he was still hesitant to get close to Kushina and anyone in the Hokage's Family. He felt a bit awkward in the presence of the close-knit, loving family, but eventually, he had warmed up to them a bit. It helped that the Yondaime Hokage had told him stories of Uchiha, Obito, the Uchiha who had done the unthinkable and given up their clan's most prized possession, the Sharingan, on his deathbed purely so Kakashi-Sensei could protect the love of his life in his stead. The stories of Obito had amused Sasuke, but had eventually caused him to loosen up and try to live up to his ideals, without any of the more amusing downsides.

Sakura was the first one to get vocal. "I just can't believe we decided to leave Nami no Kuni to it's fate" she said in a downtrodden manner, which had resulted in the other members of Team 7 to bow their heads, before Kushina quickly distracted them by more positive things. Minato, upon seeing the mood they were in, quickly cleared his throat to get their attention, and pulled out another mission scroll, this one also a C-Rank.

"I have another C-Rank for you, right here in Hi no Kuni. According to our Daimyo, his caravans have had a bit of an issue with bandits attacking them, and he has hired a team from Konoha to wipe out the bandit camps in the area. It should take you quite a bit, and unlike Tazuna, the mission details have been confirmed as C-Rank Level. Good luck to you Team 7" he explained to them in his 'Hokage tone', which caused the members of Team 7 to bow in gratitude, before quickly being dismissed, Kushina following after them.

Once they had left, Minato turned to Jiraiya, looking at him with a critical gaze. "I want you to follow them and make sure that, in the very unlikely event that this mission isn't as it seems, you jump in and protect them should they need it. I don't want anything to happen to any of them. Is that understood, Sensei?" Minato asked Jiraiya with a serious inflection in his tone of voice, causing Jiraiya to nod his head in understanding, giving him an easygoing grin.

"No problem Minato, I'll ensure that they all come back safe and sound should things turn out wrong. You can count on me" Jiraiya said, before quickly disappearing out of the window to follow after Team 7, right at the moment where Yugao's ANBU team had come in.

Upon seeing his trusted ANBU team, Minato let out a sigh of relief, and turned to them. "Your mission is to go to Nami no Kuni, and ensure that their country is freed from the tyranny of Gato, by any means necessary. Expect at least an A-Ranked Nuke-Nin, maybe even an S-Rank, so prepare to fight with your lives should that happen. Dismissed" Minato said, giving them a short summary of their mission, and what to expect, which caused the ANBU to bow and then depart with Shunshins. Once that was done, he turned back to the paperwork on his desk, and grinned as he summoned up some Kage Bunshin to take care of it, while he went back to working on the sealing array he had on his desk. He had no idea that what the ANBU found in Nami no Kuni, would bring him a blast from the past.

 **-Mercenary Tao VS Chiyo-**

Mercenary Tao squared off with Chiyo, making sure to evade the most-likely poison-tipped senbon she shot at him with the help of her puppets. His eyes were focused on Chiyo right now, not even bothering to turn in Ameyuri's direction. She was deemed an S-Ranked Ninja for a reason, after all, and as a result of that, had made sure to maintain his focus on the accursed Poisons Mistress of Sunagakure. The blonde narrowed his eyes in thought as he continued to skillfully bob and weave around the various weapons that Chiyo happened to have been launching from her puppets at him, deflecting those he couldn't avoid with a swipe of his bone sword. Chiyo, upon seeing this, proceeded to do something that would have taken most people off-guard. While using her puppets to continue to harass him, she quickly exhaled a purple cloud of smoke at him, showcasing her mastery of the **Dokugiri no Jutsu** on such a level that she didn't even need to use hand seals for it.

Upon noticing what had just been sent at him, he quickly utilized some incredible speed by pointing his arms out forwards, and spinning them at such a rate that it had caused miniature tornadoes to form on them, which then shot at the cloud of poison gas and blew it away with such force, that it had actually caused Chiyo to blink in surprise for a moment. That surprise was enough for Tao launch a throwing knife at her just enough that it would graze her shoulder, but nothing more than that, as Chiyo, despite being so old, still had finely honed physical skills, and as such, she was able to slide out of the way well enough to avoid getting any critical injuries. Seeing this made Tao narrow his eyes, knowing that he didn't poison his own weapons, since he preferred beating an enemy at their best just to prove how utterly inferior they were to him.

Chiyo temporarily disabled the puppets she guided with her right hand, so she could fire a number of kunai at him, and Tao quickly zigzagged through each one she threw. Chiyo's face gave nothing away, but it was this lack of any emotion that made Mercenary Tao suspect something was up. Before his mind could comprehend what was going on, he caught the distinct sound of blades cutting through air, and only managed to duck and cover out of the way of the blades, the kunai missing him by a single inch. Scowling in irritation, he noticed that the kunai she threw had strings of Chakra attached to them, indicating she used the **Chakura no Ito** in order to manipulate the blades into coming back at him, thus using her own form of the **Soshujin**. Scowling to himself in irritation, he retaliated by gathering Ki into his eyes, and firing a pair of **Soumasen** at her, which Chiyo retaliated by bringing one of her puppets up in front of her and brought it's arm up to summon a Puppetry-based Chakra Shield to block his attack.

Narrowing his eyes in annoyance, he was about to go on the attack once more, but unfortunately for Tao, Chiyo was no slouch, and as such, she quickly launched her kunai at Tao, before ending their manipulation and activating her other five puppets once more. The fabled Mercenary quickly deflected them with well-timed hits of his bone sword, but this was just a distraction, as before he knew it, Chiyo had him surrounded with all ten of her puppets. Before he could realize what it was that she had done, he was quickly assaulted with a barrage of various throwing weapons, and considering the sheer number of them, he would be unable to dodge them all. Realizing her game, he let out a scream and summoned up an **Explosive Wave** with a mighty scream, the minor explosion he summoned up causing the blades be blown harshly back towards Chiyo and her puppets, which she quickly dodged herself, and had her puppets launch them away by backhanding them away with her puppets.

Tao tried to go on the attack once more, but yet again, Sunagakure's Poison Mistress had him covered, as she quickly lashed out with one of the puppets behind him, who moved in at him with blades poking out of it's body like a porcupine, and spinning wildly. Mercenary Tao, though, had a keen awareness of his surroundings, and responded by jumping in the air to avoid the attack, making sure not to jump too high and result in him hitting the ceiling of the bunker, and fired a well-placed **Dodonpa** at the puppet. Normally, the damage dealt with the **Dodonpa** would have put a target down, but as this was a puppet, the only thing his most prized technique did was cut off the functions to the left side of it's body, which was enough to cripple it.

The blonde assassin didn't have time to celebrate though, as Chiyo took advantage of his airtime, and manipulated one of her puppets to lash out at him with a barrage of chains that wrapped around him, and then proceeded to chain him to the ceiling. Tao struggled to get out of the grasp of the chains, but they were holding together, even when he tapped into his full strength. Chiyo wasted no time in taking advantage, and used her **Lion-Headed Kannon** , one of her Chikamatsu Puppets firing a small ball that quickly morphed into a large, white-headed lion head that raced towards him and slammed into him, further trapping him up against the ceilings by increasing the strength of his bindings. The Second Great Shinobi War veteran smirked to herself, and decided to try and finish him off, by quickly having her puppets lunge at him, swords extending out of their mouths, which gave Tao plenty of indication as to what she had planned.

Just as they did their dog pile on him and were about to impale him, he summoned up an **Energy** **Shield** that expelled out from his body and launched not only the puppets back, but forcefully expelled his bindings off of him, but only barely. As he descended to the ground, his eyes caught sight of one of the Chikamatsu Puppets, and used his Ki to force him downwards like a rocket, where he then thrusted out with his sword, and managed to cut the targeted puppet in half, which meant the elimination of two of her ten puppets. Great, only eight more to go, then. Just as Tao was about to go on the attack once more, he suddenly felt something grab a hold of him, and he felt a sword go between his ribs. Coughing up a bit of blood, he looked behind him to find that the puppet he thought he disabled earlier in the fight had, miraculously, been manipulated by Chiyo reasonably enough to attack him. Growling in irritation, but relieved that the poor state of the puppet had resulted in anything vital being missed, he let out a scream as he summoned up another **Explosive Wave** , causing the puppet and the sword to be vaporized, this time putting that puppet out of commission.

He landed on the ground feet-first, but unfortunately for him, Chiyo was on the attack once more, and four of her puppets came at him from every cardinal direction, attempt to use them as battering rams of sorts. Or at least, that's what it seemed like she was doing. In reality, they had stopped short, and and wrapped him up in chains once more. The four of them then started circling him at high speeds, wanting to crush him to death in the chains by wrapping them as tightly around him as they could. Already, Tao could feel his body feeling the effects of the ever growing tightness. Grunting in pain, he slowly started to spin with the chains, only barely managing to summon up a **Hyper Tornado** that managed to shred through the chains, though the Puppet Mistress reacted quickly enough to get her puppets out of the way. Unfortunately for her, though, he seemed to anticipate that she would do that, and quickly reacted by rapid firing his **Dodonpa** at them one-by-one, something that caught her off-guard enough that resulted in two more of her puppets being taken out of commission, though the other two managed to escape unscathed. Chiyo, in another display of experience, quickly inhaled, and fired a compressed ball of Wind at Mercenary in the form of a non-explosive **Futon: Renkudan** , causing his ribs to be cracked from the force of the ball hitting him.

Using his ability to block out pain, he continued on with his fight, and hurled a barrage of throwing knives at two of her puppets in a way that they would be forced into a wall, and bound there, or so it seemed. Chiyo had them deflect the kunai, but Tao was already on the move, winding up behind one of the puppets, and swiftly cutting it up into pieces with his sword. He was about to turn his attention to one of the puppets, when the two puppets that he had hit with his **Dodonpa** had tried to come up behind him again. Learning from his mistake last time, however, he had heard them coming, and back-flipped over the two of them, landing on the floor with his feet, and then lunging forward at them and firing a pair of basic **Energy Waves** at them. Needless to say, the two were vaporized, bringing the puppets down to five. Noticing this for herself, Chiyo was quick to move the control of the remaining five puppets to her right hand, leaving the left free for whatever purpose she had in mind for it.

She then directed three of her puppets into a triangular formation, having them perform her **Sanbo Kyukai** , the three puppets summoning up a powerful vortex of air that started sucking Tao towards them. Tao made use of the Flight ability to keep himself from being sucked in, and he saw all of the puppet pieces get sucked in and them crushed and ground up through the back of the puppets. Narrowing his eyes as he smirked, he quickly fired a small E **nergy Wave** into the vortex, causing it to get sucked up and lead right to the puppets, causing them to be vaporized. Now there was only two more puppets left to go, and Tao was going to try and be quick to dispose of them, but unfortunately for him, Chiyo was quick to go on the attack, but what surprised him was that she didn't do it with her puppets. No, instead, she summoned a sword from a sealing scroll, and quickly lunged at him with it using her free hand, causing him to be locked into a clashing of blades.

Smirking in amusement over her foolish attempt, he easily tossed her back using his incredible strength, and was about to run right through her, when she expertly directed one of her last two remaining puppets to take the blow, but in exchange for having the puppet to wrap it's limbs around the blonde Mercenary to keep him there. Chiyo acted quickly, and quickly threw her sword through the puppet, making sure to aim for places that wouldn't cripple it, causing the sword to go through the puppet and impale itself through Tao, missing his heart by only a few inches. Coughing up another glob of blood, he let out a scream **and** summoned up another **Explosive Wave** to destroy the puppet, but the sword she used on him mysterious only came flying back to her, somehow surviving the explosion.

Not bothering to waste brain power on thinking how that happened, he did something to surprise Chiyo, and belched out a Mouth Energy Wave at her last puppet, and due to the surprise factor, she was thus unable to direct it away from the blast, resulting in the destruction of her last Chikamatsu Puppet. Smirking in pride over disarming the Puppet Mistress of her strongest attacks, the bounty hunter then lunged at her to try and finish her off, but Chiyo was showing surprising spryness and actually managing to block, dodge, and deflect his blows. He had to grudgingly give her credit, while she was old, she was showing why she was considered a Kage-level Shinobi.

The two danced a deadly dance, but then Chiyo surprised him by getting within his guard and making use of Chakra Flow via her Wind Chakra in order to make a deep slash across his chest, which only added to the damage done to him so far. Clapping his hands mockingly as he jumped away from her, he proceeded to mock her.

"Not bad, old woman, not bad. However, your greatest weapons are gone, and you'll quickly join the rest of your wretched family in the abyss that is Hell" he said to her in a snide manner, before freezing up when he started noticing that his movements started getting sluggish, and he was feeling some sluggishness take over him. His heart even started beating irregularly, and his breathing was getting heavier. Chiyo, upon noticing this, smirked at him quietly, and that was when Tao realized that she must have poisoned the blades her puppets used to pierce through him. Since all poisons used by Ninja had some Chakra properties, the poison in his system was acting very slowly, but it was starting to kick in now, even with his lack of chakra dulling some of the effect. Tao glared at her angrily, and was about to finish her off, when she quickly attached some Chakura no Ito to him and started directing his blows away from her, stringing him along this way and that so she could hold him off for as long as possible until her poison finally did him in.

Eventually, the poison was so strong, that he felt paralysis overcome him, and he slowly collapsed to the floor, developing a cold sweat. Chiyo stood over him victoriously with a smirk on her face, and reared her sword up over her head, before she suddenly felt pain in her chest, collapsing to the floor, before darkness overcame her.

* * *

 **A/N:** **BOOM, ANOTHER CHAPTER FINISHED! Sorry this one took so long, but I finally got it up. I know that it seems like I left it on a cliffhanger, but I promise you that the story still has a LONG way to go. I hope you all enjoyed this newest chapter, and I apologize if the wait didn't seem worth it. :(** **  
**


	8. Ameyuri VS Ebizo and Pakura

**A/N:** **Hello all my lovely readers out there, RivalsToLovers is back with yet another chapter, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as the other chapters that had fights in them. :3 First, time to reply to some reviews.  
**

 **Guest \- "Instead of having Naruto/Tao fight Chiyo why didn't you just have Naruto/Tao use Tri-Beam on the Village or the place where Chiyo and her apprentice's were at?" - That is because the Suna Fuinjutsu Team, as well as Tao and Ameyuri, are in a bunker below Kaze no Kuni. If they got too destructive with their attacks, they could wind up crushing themselves underneath the massive piles of sand and earth above them. So, it's both an advantage for both sides, because they won't be able to pull out all the stops to defeat the other, but at the same time, their opponents won't be able to use anything too destructive.  
**

 **With all of that said and done, it's time for the second of three fights. Sit back, and I hope you all enjoy the ride. :3  
**

"Talking"

 _'Mental Speech'_

 _*Thinking*_

 **"Bijuu/Inner Personality/Cursed Seal Talking"**

 _ **'Bijuu/Inner Personality Mental Speech'**_

 _ ***Bijuu/Inner Personality Thinking***_

 **Jutsu/Technique Names  
**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Ameyuri VS Ebizo and Pakura  
**

Team 7, who were secretly being shadowed by Jiraiya, quickly moved through the wilderness of Hi no Kuni via the usage of the **Shunshin no Jutsu** , and as such, were able to quickly make their way to the location of the Bandit Camp, all of them hiding expertly in the trees and looking at the assembled group of hoodlums with narrowed eyes. They were ready to begin their siege at any moment, but all they needed to start was the signal to do so, but they didn't have to wait long, as Sasuke quickly strung together a set of hand seals, and with a whisper, summoned up the **Kokuangyo no Jutsu** , the A-Ranked Genjutsu that would summon up a shroud of darkness around the victims. Now that the bandits were completely covered in darkness, Team 7 began their attack, minus Kakashi who sat back and decided to let them have the bandits to themselves. After all, he believed that they wouldn't be an issue for his team.

" **Doton: Domu!** " Sakura called out, summoning up her precious Doton Jutsu that gave her a hardened form of stone around her body, which also gave her increased strength to go with it. Not wasting a single moment, she quickly started darting towards each of the bandits, using the **Shunshin no Jutsu** in combination with her **Doton: Domu** so she could use her own body as a walking projectile, acting very much like a human wrecking ball at that moment. She had learned from Kakashi-Sensei that enemies were to be dealt with as quickly as possible, no holding off, no showing off techniques, no testing herself, just quick dispatching. So, she was quick to shatter bones and reduce bandits to smears on the ground with each hit she unleashed on them.

Sasuke was quick to join in on the attack, unleashing Genjutsu after Genjutsu on his opponents to bind them, or even force them to turn their weapons on their own comrades. While he was still very much a frontline fighter, the usage of Genjutsu allowed him to conserve his energy in the event of a more dangerous scenario were to come by. He didn't even bother trying to kill them, instead preferring to turn them on each other with his precious Genjutsu. When he had the time, he was going to personally thank Yuuhi-Sensei for the tutelage in Genjutsu, that was for sure.

Mito, not to be left out, quickly showed off her incredible grace and speed by slashing through the bandits with quick, precise strikes of her precious Chokuto. The bandits didn't even stand a chance, they might have were they happen to have gone against a normal Genin Team, but Team 7 were far from ordinary. Mito's eyes were iced over with determination, using this as a stepping stone to getting the ability to find her brother, and convince him to come back. She had her first kill a while ago, along with Sakura and Sasuke, so they didn't even bat an eye over the act of slaughter they were unleashing upon the bandits. The fight was far from fair, the bandits didn't even have a chance. By the time was over and done with, Kakashi joined them in the middle of the miniature battlefield, and clapped his hands in a congratulatory manner.

"Ma, ma, that was quite impressive, you there. Only thing that is left is to destroy the camp, and to get rid of the corpses" Kakashi said to them, which caused the three Genin to nod their heads in understanding. They quickly took out their incendiary tags, and quickly set everything up, from the makeshift buildings, to piling up the corpses. After activating their tags with a set of hand seals, the campsite burst into flames, and everything there was reduced to cinders. With everything done, Team 7 quickly made their way back to Konoha, being tailed by an impressed Jiraiya.

 **-In the Sunagakure Bunker-**

Ameyuri grinned in a bloodthirsty manner as she eagerly twirled her electrified Kiba Blades around in her hands as she looked over her two opponents. Ebizo and Pakura, both very worthy opponents in their own right. While Pakura wouldn't be on her level normally, with Ebizo as backup, i was safe to say that she was going to be a pesky opponent to fight. Good, all the more enjoyment for her, then. She didn't even turn her attention to Tao once, trusting in his ability to get the job done. Looking them both up and down with a shark-like grin on her face, she narrowed her eyes at them when she noticed that both Pakura and Ebizo had pulled out katanas, and since they were both Futon Wielders, it was safe to say that they knew Chakra Flow. The Futon Chakra would act as dampeners for her Raiton Chakra-infused blades, unfortunately, but that was yet one more challenge to add to the fun.

In a flash, both Ebizo and Pakura charged at Ameyuri, attempting to bring their blades crashing down on top of the ex-Kiri-Nin. However, Ameyuri was fully prepared for the assault, and brought her blades up to meet theirs, which resulted in a perfectly stalemate. Even with them using both of their hands to push down, and her holding them back with one blade in each arm only, her womanly frame deceived eyes that looked upon her, as she possessed impeccable strength herself. Sparks flew between their blades, and though they clearly did try to push down on her, Ebizo and Pakura weren't having any luck. Deciding that they weren't getting anywhere, they quickly jumped away from her, and then attempted to double team her with a **Shunshin** -infused slash of their blades, to which the redheaded tomboy responded by summoning up a lightning-based shockwave with her Kiba Blades that blasted them away before their attacks could land.

They quickly righted themselves in the air and bounced off of the wall with their feet, forming a chain of hand seals for some of their Techniques, Pakura firing a **Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu** , and Ebizo moving in behind Ameyuri and attempting to hit her with a **Kaze no Yaiba**. Ameyuri quickly darted to the side to avoid both of the attacks, and decided to target Pakura first, since she was the weaker of her two opponents. Quickly darting into the shadows, she attempted to sneak up behind the Sunagakure Kunoichi and run her through, but Pakura somehow knew she was there, darted out of the way with the Shunshin no Jutsu, appearing right behind Ameyuri and attempting to exhale a small amount of Katon Chakra out of her mouth to try and set Ameyuri ablaze with a burst of fire. The S-Ranked Kiri-Nin quickly sprinted out of the way of the attack, only for Ebizo to wind up behind her and attempting to bind her with Ninja Wire. Out of instinct, she brought her swords up to prevent the wire from fully trapping her, and after forcefully prying the Ninja Wire off of her with her blades, she slid out underneath the wires with no injuries, only to have Pakura launch a **Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu** at her.

Quickly focusing her Kiba Blades together, she fired a bolt of Raiton-Chakra from her blades that overpowered the small fire balls, and only barely missed Pakura. This distraction allowed Ebizo to go on the attack once more, and in a flash, he had gathered his Futon Chakra, and fired a **Spiraling Wind Ball** at her, which she only barely avoided by twisting her body to the side to avoid the attack. Once again, she turned to fight Pakura once more, only to realize that Pakura was no longer where she was. She was suddenly blasted in the left side by a powerful blast of wind that caused her to crash into the wall, gasping for air.

Quickly overcoming this sudden shock, she performed a set of hand seals, and with a shout of " **Suiton: Tepodama!** " she fired a quick bullet of water at Pakura, causing her to undergo the same treat that Ameyuri herself had just experienced. Ameyuri attempted to take advantage and tried to fry her with a bolt of lightning from her Kiba Blades, but at the last moment, she felt something tug on her arms, and it resulted in her missing her shot. Raising her eyebrows in surprise, she noticed a **Chakura no Ito** on her arms, which lead back to Ebizo. Seeing this caused Ameyuri to grimace, and with a snarl, she quickly tossed her Kiba Blades into the air, and quickly fired a **Raiton: Jibashi** at Ebizo, summoning a powerful wave of lightning to try and rip through him.

Ebizo quickly used the **Shunshin no Jutsu** to avoid the Raiton Jutsu, and he moved in on her, making sure to position himself in front of Pakura to shield her from Ameyuri's eyes. Ameyuri narrowed her eyes, and was about to lunge at Ebizo, when he suddenly moved out of the way, revealing that during the moment he had shielded her, Pakura had unleashed one of her Shakuton Jutsu, firing a couple of flaming orbs in the form of the **Shakuton: Kajosatsu** , which caused Ameyuri to spit out a **S** **uiton: Mizurappa** to dispel the flaming orbs. While normally, the wave would continue on, the heat from the flaming orbs were so intense that they evaporated the water, both attacks causing steam to erupt around them. Ameyuri quickly moved in on Pakura while she had the chance, but unfortunately for her, the Shakuton Wielder somehow knew where she was, and managed to avoid Ameyuri's lethal throat slice by sliding down to the ground and then scooting away from her, throwing a kunai at her as she darted away. **"Futon: Reppusho** " Pakura called out as she fired her Futon Jutsu at the kunai she threw, increasing it's lethality and speed.

Ameyuri scoffed at this rudimentary trick, and she easily stepped out of it's path. However, that was the distraction that the two had needed, and they retaliated by firing both a Futon: Renkudan, from Ebizo, and a Katon: Garyuka no Jutsu from both sides of her. In a flash, they descended upon her, and it seemed like they hit her, judging by the resulting burst of flames and steam to pop up. Pakura and Ebizo were seasoned Ninja, though, and didn't take their eyes off of where their opponent was. Upon the steam clearing, it was revealed that Ameyuri had somehow gathered the amount of water necessary to summon up a **Sution: Suijinheki** that protected her from the resulting combination attack. Narrowing their eyes, both of the Ninja immediately realized that the air was a bit drier, and that was when they came to the conclusion she had summoned up the required water from the moisture in the air.

Ameyuri quickly let down her Suiton barrier, and quickly summoned up another shockwave of lightning to knock them both back. The attack worked, and they were both knocked back by Ameyuri, who took advantage by gathering up her Chakra, and forming the proper hand seals. "Raiton: Gian!" she called out, firing a spear made of lightning as she tried to eviscerate Pakura with her attack. She was partially successful, in that she had managed to pierce through her shoulder in such a way that she paralyzed the woman's left arm. Pakura, to her credit, showed no signs of pain, her face as resolute and stoic as always. Quickly sliding her Katana back into it's sheathe, she quickly pulled out a kunai, and used the Hien no Jutsu as she charged at the Kirigakure Nuke-Nin, Ameyuri easily avoiding her attacks due to the differences in their abilities. However, as the battle had clearly proven thus far, things weren't that easy, as right when Pakura had reached her, she suddenly performed a Kawarimi no Jutsu with Ebizo, who lashed out with a Kaze no Yaiba. Ameyuri's eyes widened, and she only barely managed to avoid the lethal attack, though she took a devastating gash across her stomach during her attempt to avoid it, one that gushed blood.

Grimacing to herself as she tried to ignore the pain, she quickly hit Ebizo in the face with a headbutt that broke his nose, and sent him staggering back from the force of the blow. She then quickly bit his arm, and ripped a chunk out of his bicep with her sharp teeth. She spit out what she had ripped from the Sunagakure Elder, and managed to get off a lucky slash that had sent shocks of electricity into his already damaged arm when her blades cut deeper into his wound, and even pierced through the bone. Pulling her Kiba blade out, she then kicked Ebizo away from her, sending him crashing into the wall. Deciding that she had taken care of him for the moment, she attempted to locate Pakura, only to feel an intense coming from behind her, which instinctively caused her to dive out of the way of the attack, just barely avoiding the large flaming orb the Shakuton Wielder had sent at her. Glaring across at the green-haired woman, she retaliated by pressing her Kiba blades together, and summoning a ball of lightning in between the blades.

With a shout of " **Raikyu** ", Ameyuri fired said ball of lightning at Pakura, who retaliated by making it clash with one of her Sahkuton flaming orbs, but what surprised Ameyuri was how the Shakuton orbs had managed to just overpower her lightning ball. Thinking quickly, she quickly used the Kawarimi no Jutsu to switch with Grand Elder Ebizo, who was perfectly aware of what happened, and got out of the way by darting to the side. Seeing that Ebizo was alright, Pakura attempted to focus on Ameyuri once more, only to wind up with one of the Kiba Blades in her chest, which sent shocks and pain through her body. Letting out a gasping cough, she looked behind her, and saw that Ameyuri had thrown the Kiba Blade. Ameyuri, upon seeing the shock on her face, quickly smirked at her.

"I found it odd how you were able to react to me in advance of what I did, so I had decided to test out what you could do, and you didn't even seem to notice that I threw the blade. I believe that's game" she said with an evil grin on her face, before grasping the hilt of her Kiba Blade, and summoning up the electricity in it once more, causing Pakura to let out screams of pain as she was fried. Once Pakura had stopped responding, Ameyuri quickly pulled her Kiba Blade out, and turned her attention to Ebizo, lunging at him and engaging in a fierce sword duel with him. Ebizo grunted to himself, feeling his age and fatigue catch up with him. He didn't train as much as Chiyo did, so he was starting to reach his limits. Ameyuri apparently noticed this, and with an evil grin, she surprised him by firing a Suiton: Mizurappa at him, quickly slamming him into the wall with such force that she had caused his neck to snap in a fatal manner.

Panting to herself, she turned to see how Tao was doing, and noticed the predicament that Chiyo had him in. Narrowing her eyes, she continued to pant to herself as the loss of blood was slowly starting to get to her. Having time to dress her wounds a bit, she quickly wrapped herself up, and then surprised Chiyo by impaling her through the heart with one of her Kiba Blades. The old bat died with a look of pained shock on her face. Panting to herself as she saw the barrier protecting the apprentices disappear, she grinned in a tired, but still very bloodthirsty manner, and had attacked them, mauling them brutally as she realized that she had to get this over and done with as soon as possible. Once they were all done for, she panted as she sheathed her swords, and started sealing all of the corpses up into her scroll. She then threw the unconscious Mercenary Tao on her back, and quickly sprinted for the exit.

It was such a shame for her, and the rest of the Ninja World, that she didn't notice some odd, half-black and half-white, yellow-eyed, man in the same cloak as Deidara, complete with some kind of plant growth, sprouted from the ground. Zetsu smirked to himself, and looked down at the unconscious Pakura in his arms, the REAL Pakura.

"Mission accomplished, **I'm sure Madara-Sama will** be very pleased with **getting Pakura in his hands"** came the dual voices of Zetsu, as he slunk into the ground with Pakura in his arms to report back to the true leader of the Akatsuki.

* * *

 **A/N:** **BOOM, yet another Chapter done!** **I apologize if the mission with Team 7 was a little short, but this is only a prelude to what they can do. I guarantee you that they will have better, more detailed fights in the future. However, before I can do those, I have to quickly do these little missions of theirs. This should be about the last very short fight they have, as far as my plans and ideas go, so you hopefully won't have to put up with it for much longer. I hope you all are curious as to what Team 7 can REALLY do, and you will get to see them fully in action for yourself at some point. I'm sorry if the chapter seemed a little shorter than usual, and I hope you'll all forgive me for that.  
**


End file.
